FOREiaN    MISSIONS 


THEIR 


RELATIONS  AND  CLAIMS. 


RUFUS   ANDERSON,   D.D.,  LL.D., 

LATK  FOaSIQN  SIOSETABT  0?  THE    AMERICAN  BOARD    OF    COMMISSIONERS  FOR  FOREIGN 
MISSIONS. 


>  3         * 


NEW  YORK: 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER  AND   COMPANY. 

1869. 


/f4 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  tlie  year  1869,  by 
Chaelks  Sceibnee  and  Cobipant, 
the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


RITERSrDE,    CAHBRISaE: 

STEREOTYPED    AND    PRINTED    BY 

H.  O.  HOCGHTON  AND  COJIPANY. 


TO  THE  TRUSTEES 

OF  THK 

THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY  IN  ANDOVER, 

UNDER 
WHOSE  APPOINTMENT  THIS  WORK  WAS  PBEPASED. 


293333 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/foreignmissionthOOanderich 


PREFACE, 


The  work  now  offered  to  the  Christian  public 
had  its  origin  in  a  series  of  Lectures  on  Foreign 
Missions,  delivered  in  the  Theological  Seminary 
at  Andover,  under  appointment  from  the  Trus- 
tees ;  and  subsequently,  by  request,  before  the 
Theological  Seminaries  at  Bangor,  Hartford, 
Auburn,  and  Princeton,  and  the  Union  Semi- 
nary in  New  York  City.  It  was  fitting  that  the 
oldest  of  our  theological  seminaries,  and  the 
first  to  send  missionaries  into  foreign  heathen 
lands,  should  take  the  lead  in  establishing,  for 
its  students,  a  permanent  Lectureship  on  For- 
eign Missions.  This  was  created  by  a  vote  of 
the  Trustees  early  in  the  year  1866 ;  and  the 
needful  pecuniary  endowment  was  secured  to 
the  Seminary  by  Henry  H.  Hyde,  Esq.,  a  citizen 
of  Boston.  The  statutes  of  the  endowment  re- 
quire the  course  to  embrace  as  many  as  ten 
lectures;  but  it  is  left  for  the  Trustees  to  de- 
cide, whether  they  shall  be  delivered  annually, 


iv  PREFACE. 

to  the  Middle  Class,  or  trienniallj,  before  the 
entire  Seminary. 

In  February,  1866,  the  author  was  appointed 
by  the  Trustees  lecturer  on  this  foundation, 
and  was  requested  to  deliver,  at  his  early  con- 
venience, a  course  of  lectures  on  Foreign  Mis- 
sions. The  appointment  had  reference  to  his 
intended  retirement  from  official  life;  which 
was  effected  that  year,  at  the  age  of  threescore 
and  ten,  after  a  connection  of  more  than  forty 
years  with  the  Foreign  Correspondence  of  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions.  It  was  with  the  hope,  however,  of 
being  enabled,  through  the  divine  blessing,  to 
devote  the  residue  of  his  life  to  embodying  the 
results  of  his  experience  in  forms  that  should 
be  useful  to  the  missionary  cause. 

The  duty  first  in  order  was  to  select  topics 
for  the  lectures,  and  to  make  the  needful  in- 
vestigations, which  required  longer  time  and 
greater  labor  than  had  been  expected.  The 
aim  was  to  embody  practical  views  of  the  mis- 
sionary work  in  its  largest  sense,  contemplated 
from  the  missionary  stand-point,  and  to  draw 
illustrations  from  every  part  of  the  great  field 
where  they  seemed  most  appropriate. 


PREFACE.  V 

The  lectures  were  delivered  to  three  succes- 
sive Middle  Classes  in  the  Andover  Seminary ; 
and  the  author  takes  pleasure  in  acknowledg- 
ing his  obligations  to  Dr.  Edwards  A.  Park, 
of  the  theological  department,  having  special 
charge  of  that  class,  for  his  kind  and  efficient 
support,  as  also  to  the  other  Professors,  and  to 
the  Students.  At  the  five  other  seminaries, 
the  Lectures  were  delivered  before  the  body  of 
Professors  and  Students.  It  may  not  be  im^ 
proper  to  say,  that  at  Auburn  the  delivery  was 
on  nine  successive  evenings,  and  at  Princeton 
on  ten,  and  that  this  unbroken  succession 
seemed  to  be  with  the  happiest  effect.  The 
last  six  lectures  of  the  course  at  Hartford  were 
delivered  on  successive  days,  and  with  the  like 
result. 

The  author  thankfully  acknowledges  his  ob- 
ligations to  the  Trustees  of  the  Andover  Sem- 
inary, for  the  formal  expression  of  their  earnest 
desire  for  the  publication  of  the  lectures ;  and 
also  to  the  Professors  in  the  several  institutions 
where  he  had  the  privelege  of  lecturing,  for 
their  very  kind  manner  of  communicating  the 
same  sentiment.  And  he  the  more  confidently 
appears  before  the  Christian  public  by  reason 


VI  PREFACE. 

of  the  frequent  expressions  of  this  sentiment 
by  students  in  the  different  seminaries.  The 
present  work  is  in  compHance  with  these  wishes ; 
though  in  a  form  that  is  deemed  better  adapted 
to  the  taste  of  the  reading  public.  The  text  is 
unaltered,  except  so  far  as  was  rendered  neces- 
sary by  the  change  of  form ;  and  hence  the 
reason  why  the  writer  is  more  prominently  be- 
fore the  reader,  than  he  is  desirous  of  being. 

As  reference  is  occasionally  made  to  the  au- 
thor's personal  intercourse  with  missions,  it  may 
be  well  to  state,  that  he  made  an  official  visit  to 
the  missions  of  the  American  Board,  bordering 
on  the  Mediterranean,  in  the  years  1828  and 
1829 ;  again,  in  1844  and  1845,  when  he  had 
the  friendly  companionship  of  the  late  Dr.  Joel 
Hawes,  of  Hartford;  and  again,  in  1855,  on  his 
way  home  from  India.  He  visited  the  India 
missions,  with  Dr.  Augustus  C.  Thompson  as  an 
associate,  in  1854  and  1855 ;  and  in  the  year 
1863,  he  spent  four  months,  in  an  official  visit, 
on  the  Sandwich  Islands.  Each  of  these  visits 
involved  much  travel  by  land  and  sea ;  yet, 
under  the  protection  of  a  kind  Providence,  not 
a  single  accident  was  anywhere  experienced. 


PREFACE,  VI 1 

It  will  at  once  be  seen  what  is  the  object  of 
this  work.  It  is  to  show  the  extent  of  the  field 
that  has  been  providentially  opened  for  foreign 
missions ;  the  providential  preparation  other- 
wise made  for  such  missions ;  the  peculiar  na- 
ture of  the  work  of  missions;  the  extent  to 
which  it  has  been  carried;  its  success;  the 
hindrances  at  home  and  abroad,  and  how  they 
may  be  removed ;  and  the  claims  of  foreign 
missions  upon  the  churches,  and  upon  young 
ministers  of  the  gospel. 

The  appeal  is  to  those,  w^ho  look  upon  the 
gospel  as  the  only  hope  of  this  lost  world.  To 
this  view  the  author's  experience  has  brought 
him  with  a  power  he  is  unable  to  resist.  His 
theory  of  missions  is  substantially  that  of  the 
Apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  And  he  has  the  more 
confidence  in  his  exposition  of  it,  because  of  the 
ample  scope  it  allows  for  the  exercise  of  discre- 
tion in  the  use  of  subordinate  means.  What>- 
ever  exalts  the  cross,  whatever  impressively 
sets  forth  the  gospel,  must  be  within  the  scope 
of  the  great  commission  given  by  our  Lord. 

But  the  use  to  be  made  of  subordinate  means, 
the  is  a  subject  of  much  difficulty,  on  which 


viii  PREFACE. 

best  and  most  intelligent  men  are  not  yet 
fully  agreed.  Should  this  volume  have  the 
effect  to  stimulate  secretaries,  missionaries,  or 
others  specially  interested  in  the  subject  and 
conversant  with  it,  to  efforts  for  solving  the  yet 
unresolved  problems,  even  should  their  opinions 
differ  from  his  own,  the  author  will  greatly  re- 
joice; believing  that,  in  so  mighty  an  enter- 
prise, entered  upon  so  recently,  we  must  yet 
be  far  from  a  complete  apprehension  of  the 
agencies  that  ought  to  be  employed. 

While  the  value  of  local  native  churches  as  a 
prominent  instrumentality  for  renovating  the 
heathen  world,  is  set  forth  with  earnestness; 
the  word  church  is  used  only  in  the  sense  of  an 
associated,  local  body  of  Christians,  whether 
governed  by  the  popular  vote,  by  elders  chosen 
for  the  purpose,  or  in  some  other  way.  The 
necessity  of  native  pastors  is  indeed  insisted 
upon ;  and  also  of  a  pastorate  confessedly  modi- 
fied from  that  of  the  apostolic  churches,  though 
in  strict  conformity  with  the  present  usage  of 
all  evangelical  denominations.  Into  the  minor 
details  of  church  polity,  the  author  has  not 
deemed  himself  called  to  enter. 


PREFACE.  ix 

Some  may  be  ready  to  regard  the  theory  of 
missions  here  described  as   being  self-evident, 
seeing  it  is  so  very  simple.    But  such  an  impres- 
sion would  betray  much  ignorance  of  the  history 
of  modern  missions.     It  is  even  now  a  contro- 
verted point  with  not  a  few  friends  of  missions, 
to  say  nothing  of  others,  whether  civilization 
must  not  precede  Christianity,  or,  at  any  rate, 
what  is  the  precise  relation  of  the  two.    Eecent 
publications  show,  also,  that  the  relative  place  of 
preaching  in  the  missionary  work,  as  compared 
with  education,  is  not  quite  settled,  though  the 
difference  is  perhaps  somewhat  more  theoreti- 
cal than  practical ;  and  the  question  seems  to 
have  no  great  interest  beyond  the  caste-regions 
of  India.     Scarcely  fifteen  years  have  elapsed 
since  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  send  a  Deputa- 
tion to  India,  with  one  of  its  leading  objects  to 
persuade   the    missionaries    of   the   American 
Board  in  that  country  to  commence  the  prac- 
tice  of    ordaining    native   pastors.      There   is 
printed  evidence,  much  of  which  has  not  been 
published,  that  the  theory  of  missions  advocated 
by  the  Deputation  when  in  India,  was  substan- 
tially the  same  which  is  embodied  in  this  work ; 
and  the  unexpected  discussion  at  the  annual 


X  PREFACE, 

meeting  of  the  American  Board  in  1855,  as  to 
the  proceedings  of  that  Deputation,  and  the 
holding  of  a  special  meeting  to  inquire  into  their 
proceedings,  was  in  great  measure  the  result  of 
misapprehension ;  as  was  abundantly  shown,  at 
the  annual  meeting  in  1856,  by  the  Report  of 
the  "  Committee  of  Thirteen."  Yet  the  nu- 
merous columns  of  the  religious  newspapers, 
occupied  with  this  subject  previous  to  the  re- 
port of  that  committee,  would  convince  any 
one,  that  the  theory  of  missions  was  then  by 
no  means  determined.  Seven  years  later,  a 
Deputation  was  sent  to  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
largely  to  induce  the  missionaries  on  those 
islands  to  put  the  native  church-members  gen- 
erally under  a  native  pastorate,  and  to  place 
the  native  pastorate  of  the  islands  on  an  inde- 
pendent footing,  which  there  was  an  apparent 
backwardness  to  do.  And  so  far  as  informa- 
tion is  yet  attainable,  it  is  only  a  few  years 
since  the  discovery  was  made,  that  native  pas- 
tors form  an  essential  element  in  native  churches, 
to  make  them  healthful,  vigorous,  self-support- 
ing, and  aggressive. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  principles  and  methods 
of  foreign   missions   embodied  in   the  seventh 


PREFACE.  xi 

chapter,  were  wrought  out  with  painstaking, 
and  through  much  conflict  of  opinion. 

The  author's  aim,  throughout,  has  been  to 
give  an  honest  presentation  of  what  may  prop- 
erly be  called  the  science  of  missions,  as  it  is 
understood  by  himself,  and  never  in  a  con- 
troversial form ;  and  he  ventures  the  hope  that 
this  result  of  his  labors  may  serve,  in  future 
times,  for  a  landmark  to  those  who  shall  per- 
form the  service  for  their  generation,  which  he 
has  endeavored  to  perform  for  his. 

It  is  proper  to  say  a  word  as  to  the  clas- 
sification and  arrangement  of  topics.  The  first 
chapter  presents  the  field  of  the  world,  as  it  is 
opening  to  the  foreign  missions  of  our  day,  and 
the  second  the  preparations  for  occupying  it. 
The  seven  following  chapters  illustrate,  in  va- 
rious forms,  the  nature  of  the  work.  The  hin- 
drances existing  at  home  to  the  propagation 
of  the  gospel  in  heathen  lands  are  next  consid- 
ered ;  and  then  there  are  two  chapters  setting 
forth  the  extent  to  which  modern  missions  have 
been  prosecuted,  and  the  success  which  has 
attended  them.  It  was  natural  to  discuss  the 
claims  of  the  work  on  young  ministers  of  the 


xii  PREFACE. 

gospel,  which  is  the  topic  of  the  thirteenth 
chapter.  Nor  could  the  great  subject  of  mis- 
sions, avowedly  for  the  conversion  of  the  hea- 
then world  to  the  evangelical  faith,  be  dismissed 
without  an  inquiry  into  the  strength  of  the 
opposing  force  there  is  in  the  Eomish  missions. 
The  last  chapter  contains  a  r^siim^  of  the  vol- 
ume, with  concluding  reflections.  Articles  will 
be  found  in  the  Appendix,  that  are  believed  to 
add  materially  to  the  value  of  the  work. 


CONTENTS. 


PAOB 

T.  An  Opening  World 1 

II.  An  Uprising  Church 16 

III.  Development  of  the  Idea  of  the  Christian  Church  29 

IV.  Characteristics  of  Apostolic  Missions  ....  44 
V.  Irish  Missions  in  the  Early  Ages       ....  62 

VI.  Historical  Development  of  Modern  Missions      .        .  91 

VII.  Principles  and  Methods  of  Modern  Missions  .       .  109 

Vin.  Value  of  Native  Churches 120 

IX.  Missionary  Life  illustrated 145 

X.  Hindrances  at  Home 169 

XI.  Diffusion  of  Missions 194 

XII.  Success  of  Missions 219 

XIII.  Claims  of  Missions  on  Young  Ministers     .        .       .  248 

XIV.  Romish  Missions  as  an  Opposing  Force  .       .       .       .269 
XV.  Rbsum^  and  Conclusion 301 


APPENDIX. 

I.    Competence  of  Missionaries  to  testify  concerning 

Missions 318 

n.    Secular  Newspapers  and  Religious  Intelligence  .  316 

ni.    English  Mission  Schools 317 

IV.    The  Brahmo  Samaj 319 

V.    Preaching  and  Education 321 


XIV  '     CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

VI.    The  Christian  Ministry  .......  826 

VII.    Success  of  Missions 331 

VIII.    Tabular  Views 333 

IX.    Summary  of  Roman  Catholic  Missions  ....  349 

X.    Francis  Xavier  and  Romish  Missions         .        .        .  351 

Index "65 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

AN   OPENING  WORLD. 

Objects  of  Inquiry.  — Why  restricted  to  Asia.  — Importance  of  India. 
Problems  to  be  solved.  —  How  the  Possession  of  India  by  Great 
Britain  opened  the  Way  into  Turkey.  —  How  into  China.  —  Combi- 
nation of  the  Great  Christian  Powers  for  opening  China  to  Com- 
merce. —  Kemarkable  Change  in  the  Diplomatic  World.  —  How 
India  was  opened.  —  Openings  in  other  Parts  of  the  World. 

It  is  proper  that  I  enter  *upon  my  subject  by 
showing,  in  the  first  place,  how  the  unevangelized 
world  has  of  late  been  providentially  opened  to 
Christian  missions;  secondly,  how  Christendom, 
meanwhile,  has  been  in  a  process  of  unconscious 
preparation  for  evangelizing  it;  and,  thirdly,  the 
consequent  development,  in  the  Evangelical  Church, 
of  a  missionary  spirit,  and  of  missionary  organiza- 
tions, with  the  avowed  expectation  and  purpose  —  for 
the  first  time  since  the  apostolic  age  —  of  laboring 
for  the  conversion  of  the  whole  heathen  world. 

The  first  branch  of  the  subject  is  too  extended  for 
an  exhaustive  discussion.     I  shall  therefore  attempt 


2  '  FOBmG^  MISSIONS. 

only  to  show  how  the  portions  of  the  unevangelized 
world  were  opened  that  are  most  populous.  I  refer 
to  Southern,  Eastern,  and  Western  Asia,  containing" 
a  population  of  more  than  six  hundred  millions.  It 
has  for  many  years  been  my  official  duty  to  give  at- 
tention to  this  process ;  and  it  has  seemed  to  me  to 
be  one  of  the  most  impressive  indications  of  an  all- 
embracing  Providence,  preparing  the  way  for  the 
great  work  now  claiming  the  attention  and  efforts  of 
the  Christian  Church.  Preliminary  to  this,  it  will 
be  necessary  to  state  the  great  problems  that  were 
to  be  practically  solved. 

I  begin  with  India,  because  that  was  the  pivot 
on  which  the  lever  of  Providence  (so  to  speak) 
seemed  to  move  in  opening  so  large  a  portion  of  the 
heathen  world.  Her^,  in  a  population  of  nearly  two 
hundred  millions,  it  was  necessary,  first,  to  break 
down  the  Mohammedan  power,  extending  over  most 
of  the  country ;  secondly,  to  break  down  the  Brah- 
minical  power,  resting  upon  caste,  and  having  the 
sanction  of  ages ;  and,  thirdly,  when  the  East  India 
Company  had  answered  its  purpose,  it  was  needful 
to  bring  that  great  selfish  corporation  to  an  end. 
India  was  not  fully  prepared  for  the  entrance  of  the 
gospel,  until  these  results  were  all  substantially 
attained. 

In  Western  Asia,  it  was  necessary,  first,  that  Eng- 
land should  secure  a  predominant  influence  in  the 
governments  of  both  Turkey  and  Persia;  secondly. 


AN  OPENING   WORLD.  3 

that  the  persecuting  ecclesiastical  rulers  of  the  Ori- 
ental churches  should  somehow  he  so  far  restrained, 
as  to  secure  a  tolerable  protection  for  Protestant 
converts ;  thirdly,  that  the  death-penalty  in  Moham- 
medan law  should  be  practically  nullified ;  and, 
fourthly,  that  Western  and  Central  Asia  should  be 
protected  against  the  encroachments  of  the  late 
ambitious  and  bigoted  autocrat  of  Russia. 

In  Eastern  Asia  it  was  necessary,  that  the  great 
Christian  powers  of  the  world  should  combine  to 
secure  a  free  commercial  and  religious  access  to  the 
vast  population  of  China  and  the  neighboring  coun- 
tries. 

We  at  once  see,  that  only  the  "  Hand  which 
moves  the  World  "  could  accomplish  all  this.  Fifty 
years  ago,  no  well-informed  man  would  have  said 
that  any  part  of  Western,  Southern,  or  Eastern 
Asia  was  fairly  open  to  Christian  missions ;  and  no 
well-informed  man  can  doubt  that  these  countries 
are  now  open,  with  only  a  few  partial  exceptions. 

How  was  the  opening  for  the  gospel  effected  into 
these  extended  and  populous  regions  P 

The  discovery  of  the  way  to  India  by  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  in  1498,  was  the  first  step.  The  second 
was  the  chartering  of  a  small  company  of  English- 
men by  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  the  year  1600,  for  trad- 
ing in  India,  which  afterwards  took  the  name  of  the 
East   India  Company.     The  next   step  was  twelve 


4  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

years  later,  when  the  Grand  Mogul  was  persuaded  to 
authorize  this  Company  to  form  a  commercial  post 
in  India.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  British 
empire  in  the  East.  Then  came  the  struggle,  first 
with  the  Portuguese,  and  then  with  the  French, 
which  was  to  determine  whether  Popery  or  Prot- 
estantism should  govern  India ;  and  the  triumph  of 
Protestantism.  The  Mohammedan  powers  of  India 
were  partially  subdued  by  means  of  successive  wars. 
The  celebrated  battle  of  Plassey,  in  1757,  with  Clive 
in  command,  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
after  the  chartering  of  the  Company,  first  gave  it 
dominion;  and  this  dominion  was  constantly  ex- 
tended by  similar  measures,  until  it  covered  thirty 
degrees  of  latitude,  and  as  many  of  longitude,  em- 
bracing every  variety  of  climate,  scenery,  and  soil, 
and  nearly  two  hundred  millions  of  people,  speaking 
twelve  or  fifteen  polished  languages. 

The  possession  of  this  Indian  empire  by  the  Eng- 
lish nation,  —  the  opening  of  which  to  the  gospel  I 
shall  illustrate  after  tracing  its  influence  in  the  west 
and  east  of  Asia,  —  made  it  necessary  to  keep  open 
a  highway  between  India  and  England,  the  mother 
country.  This  is  a  point  of  special  interest;  for 
were  it  not  for  this,  the  whole  political  influence  in 
Turkey,  if  not  the  absolute  dominion  (so  far  as  we 
can  now  see),  would  have  been  divided  between 
France  and  Russia,  —  the  one  Roman  Catholic,  the 
other  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  both  hostile  to 
Protestant  missions. 


AN  OPENING   WORLD.  5 

The  security  of  the  English  empire  in  India  made 
it  imperative  with  England  to  acquire  and  to  exer- 
cise a  paramount  influence  in  the  government  of 
Turkey.  For  this  purpose  she  kept  her  ablest  diplo- 
matist at  the  Porte.  Her  war  with  Egypt  in  1840, 
with  Russia  in  1855,  called  the  Crimean  war  (in 
which  France  found  it  for  her  interest  to  unite),  and 
with  Persia  in  1856,  —  from  which  the  immortal 
Havelock  returned  just  in  time  to  act  his  important 
part  in  saving  India  to  England  and  to  the  cause  of 
missions,  —  all  these  wars  grew  more  or  less  directly 
out  of  the  necessity  of  keeping  this  great  highway 
open ;  and  also  of  restraining  the  progress  of  Rus- 
sian power  across  Central  Asia  towards  the  Indian 
empire. 

Moreover,  as  Russia  was  the  acknowledged  pro- 
tector of  the  Greek  Christians  in  Turkey,  and  France 
of  the  Roman  Catholics,  the  question  naturally 
arose  with  the  enlightened  English  Ambassador  at 
the  Porte,  and  with  English  statesmen,  whether 
England  would  not  strengthen  herself  in  Western 
Asia,  by  becoming  the  protector  of  the  Protestant 
Christians,  then  multiplying  in  those  regions 
through  the  labors  of  Protestant  missionaries.  A 
Parliamentary  "  Blue  Book  "  contains  the  proof  of 
this.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  the  English  em- 
bassies, both  at  Constantinople  and  in  Persia,  were 
providentially  induced,  if  they  were  not  really  in- 
structed, to  extend  that  protection  to  the  American 


6  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

missionaries,  and  their  converts,  among  the  Arme- 
nians and  Nestorians,  without  which  neither  Turkey 
nor  Persia  would  have  been  really  open  to  the  gos- 
pel. Through  the  influence  of  Lord  Stratford  de 
Redcliffe,  the  British  Ambassador  at  Constanti- 
nople, the  death-penalty  in  Mohammedan  law  for 
abjuring  the  Moslem  faith,  was  virtually  abolished; 
and  the  Protestant  Christians  of  the  empire  were 
recognized  by  the  Sultan  as  a  distinct  body,  inde- 
pendent of  all  the  other  Christian  sects,  and  en- 
titled to  the  protection  of  the  government  in  their 
persons  and  religious  privileges.  We  owe  all  this, 
under  God,  to  the  providential  fact,  that  England 
had  gained  an  empire  in  India,  and  must  needs 
preserve  an  unincumbered  way  to  it. 

Next,  as  to  the  great  and  vastly  populous  coun- 
tries lying  eastward  of  India.  The  East  India  Com- 
pany had  a  trading-post  in  China,  at  Canton,  and 
one  of  their  most  profitable  articles  for  sale  was 
opium.  It  was,  and  is  now,  a  rich  source  of  rev- 
enue. As  this  was  exerting  a  pernicious  influence 
on  the  health  and  morals  of  the  people,  the  Chinese 
government  wisely  sought  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
trade.  Finding  no  other  way  to  prevent  the  intro- 
duction of  the  poison  into  the  empire,  they  de- 
stroyed a  large  quantity  of  it  at  Canton.  The 
result  was  a  war,  —  an  iniquitous  war,  doubtless,  on 
the  part  of  the  East  India  Company,  —  but  still  a 
war ;  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  war- 


AN  OPENING   WORLD.  7 

like  aggressions,  in  which,  ultimately,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  opening  China  to  the  commercial  world,  not 
only  England,  but  France,  Russia,  and  even  the 
United  States,  became  more  or  less  involved ; 
until,  in  1858,  treaties  were  made  by  the  Chinese 
with  each  of  the  four  great  powers,  —  England, 
France,  Russia,  and  America,  engaging,  among 
other  things  (I  quote  the  words  of  the  treaty), 
that  "any  person,  either  citizen  of  the  country 
with  which  the  treaty  is  made,  or  Chinese  convert 
to  the  faith  of  the  Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic 
churches,  who,  according  to  these  tenets,  peaceably 
teaches  and  practices  the  principles  of  Christianity, 
shall  in  iio  case  be  interfered  with,  or  molested."  ^ 

As  this  was  a  stipulation  made  with  each  and  all 
of  those  powers,  for  not  less  than  four  hundred  mil- 
lions of  pagans,  it  must  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  important  transactions  of  modern  times.  Sub- 
sequent events  have  shown  that  the  treaty  was  not 
a  vain  form.  Every  important  port  of  China  is 
accessible,  and  so  is  almost  every  part  of  the  in- 
terior, not  in  a  state  of  rebellion ;  and  China  is 
now  seeking,  through  an  embassy,  at  the  head  of 
which  is  one  of  our  own  countrymen,  to  establish 
peaceful  and  honorable  relations  with  the  Christian 
world. 

It  should  be  added  that,  after  China  had  been 
made  thus  accessible  to  the  commerce  and  religion 

1  Report  of  Am.  Board,  1859,  p.  Ill  ;  Miss.  Herald,  1858,  p.  338. 


8  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

of  Christendom,  it  was  not  possible  for  its  near 
neighbor,  Japan,  to  be  much  longer  in  determined 
non-intercourse  with  other  nations  ;  and  Japan  is 
now  being  opened,  though  reluctantly,  to  the  light 
and  influence  of  Christian  truth,  as  well  as  to  the 
commerce  of  the  world. 

The  remarkable  union  of  the  plenipotentiaries  of 
the  four  great  Christian  nations,  in  stipulating  with 
the  Chinese  emperor  for  the  entrance  and  protec- 
tion of  Christian  missionaries,  and  for  the  protec- 
tion also  of  their  converts  in  every  province  of 
the  empire,  reveals  an  astonishing  change  in  the 
public  sentiment  of  the  diplomatic  world,  as  re- 
gards the  value  of  missionaries,  and  of  Christian 
missions. 

It  may  be  well  to  add,  that  these  treaties  were 
negotiated  in  1858,  a  year  memorable  as  the  one  in 
which  the  East  India  Company  closed  its  existence. 

We  shall  be  more  impressed  with  the  magnitude 
of  this  revolution  (for  it  was  such,  as  regards  re- 
ligious toleration),  if  we  now  go  back  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  centuiy,  and  observe  what  indications 
of  hostile  feeling  to  missions  existed  in  the  high 
places,  not  of  India  alone,  but  even  of  England, 
and  how  the  hostile  feeling  was  overcome  at  last. 

The   well-known    English   Baptist   missionaries, 
Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward,  arrived   at   Calcutta 


AN  OPENING   WORLD.  9 

in  1799,  and  were  ordered  by  the  East  India  gov- 
ernment to  leave  India;  bnt  found  a  refuge,  for  a 
time,  in  the  Danish  town  of  Serampore,  sixteen 
miles  above  Calcutta,  which  was  not  then  subject 
to  the  East  India  Company.  On  a  subsequent 
arrival  of  missionaries,  orders  were  given  by  the 
anthorities  at  Calcutta,  not  to  preach  to  the  natives, 
nor  to  allow  their  converts  to  preach,  nor  to  distrib- 
ute books  or  tracts,  nor  to  take  any  step  to  induce 
the  people  to  embrace  Christianity.^  In  1812,  the 
first  American  missionaries,  —  Hall,  Judson,  New- 
ell, Nott,  and  Rice,  —  arrived  at  Calcutta,  and  were 
ordered  away,  though  they  somehow  found  means 
to  evade  the  order.  An  English  missionary,  who 
accompanied  them  from  America,  was  actually  forced 
by  the  government  to  return  to  England. 

How  strangely  the  East  India  government  was 
long  in  sympathy,  and  even  partnership,  with  Hindu 
idolatry,  is  strikingly  set  forth  by  Dr.  Mullens,  now 
Foreign  Secretary  of  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
whose  valuable  acquaintance  I  formed  while  he  was 
a  missionary  at  Calcutta.     He  says  :  — 

"  There  was  a  time  when,  through  the  extensive 
preaching  of  the  gospel  by  the  Tranquebar  and 
Tanjore  missionaries  and  other  causes,  the  temples 
in  the  Madras  Presidency  began  to  be  deserted,  and 
to  fall  into  decay.  Then  it  was  that  the  government 
of  Madras   took   them   under  its   own   protection, 

1  Marshman's  Life  and  Times  of  Carey,  etc.,  vol.  i.  p.  260. 


10  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

appointed  the  officiating  priests,  received  the  offer- 
ings, disbursed  the  expenses,  publicly  presented 
gifts,  and  restored  new  vigor  to  the  dying  system ! 
The  government  of  Madras  made  itself  trustee  of 
the  pagoda-lands.  In  times  of  drought,  the  Col- 
lector ordered  the  Brahmins  to  pray  to  the  gods 
for  rain,  and  paid  money  for  their  expenses.  Euro- 
pean officers  joined  in  salutes  to  the  idols.  Some, 
of  their  own  accord,  would  make  their  obeisance, 
and  others  would  ride  in  front  of  the  cars,  shouting 
with  the  multitude,  '  Hari  Bol ! '  Villagers  were 
summoned  to  draw  the  cars  by  order  of  the  Col- 
lector, and  were  whipped  by  the  native  officials,  if 
they  refused.  The  temples  were  kept  in  repair  by 
the  government,  and  the  illuminations  at  the  festi- 
vals were  paid  for  from  the  treasury."  ^ 

Another  authority  states  than  more  than  eighi 
thousand  temples  in  the  Madras  Presidency,  with 
all  their  estates,  were  entirely  managed  by  the  Eng- 
lish officers  of  government.  In  1852,  they  paid  out 
$750,000  for  repairs  of  temples,  for  making  and 
consecrating  new  idols,  and  for  priests,  idol  cars, 
musicians,  painters,  watchmen,  and  dancing  women.2 

"  The  same  guilty  course,"  Dr.  Mullens  con- 
tinues, "was  adopted  at  the  other  Presidencies. 
In  Ceylon,  all  the  chief  Buddhist  priests  were  ap- 
pointed  by   government,   and   expenses  for   '  devil 

1  Result  of  Missionary  Labor  in  India,  p.  44. 

2  Christian  Work,  July,  1864. 


AN  OPENING   WORLD.  11 

dancing,'  continued  at  Kandy  for  seven  days,  were 
paid,  as  per  voucher,  '  For  Her  Majesty's  service ' !  " 
There  v^^ere  members  of  the  government,  and 
some  of  the  Governor  Generals,  to  whom  this  hea- 
thenish policy  was  far  from  being  acceptable;  but 
such  was  the  prevailing  spirit  of  the  ruling  pow- 
ers. Such,  too,  was  the  spirit  of  the  "  Old  In- 
dians," as  those  were  called  who  had  retired  to 
opulence  and  ease  in  England.  A  mutiny  of  native 
troops  at  Nellore,  in  1806,  occasioned  the  loss  of 
five  hundred  English  lives ;  and  this  mutiny  the 
"  Old  Indians  "  attributed  —  as  indeed  they  after- 
wards did  the  larger  one  of  1857  —  to  the  pres- 
ence and  influence  of  Christian  missions.  A  great 
controversy  arose  at  length  in  England,  in  which 
nearly  thirty  different  publications  were  issued. 
This  did  something  towards  preparing  the  public 
mind  for  the  question  of  a  new  charter  for  the 
East  India  Company,  which  came  before  Parlia- 
ment in  1813,  and  which  the  friends  of  missions 
were  determined  should  be  made  to  secure  religious 
toleration  in  India.  This  was  three  years  after  the 
formation  of  the  American  Board,  thirteen  years 
after  that  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and 
eighteen  after  that  of  the  London  Missionary  So- 
ciety. There  was  then  an  energetic  renewal  of  the 
controversy.  And  it  is  painful  to  see  how  indif- 
ferent, how  hostile  even,  what  was  in  fact  the  most 
Christian  government  in  Europe  then  was  to  the 


12  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

diffusion  of  the  glorious  gospel  of  Christ  among 
the  millions  of  its  subjects  in  the  East.  The  great 
bulk  of  the  Anglo-Indians  insisted,  that  any  attempt 
to  evangelize  India  would  cost  England  a  loss  of  the 
Indian  empire.  Mr.  Wilberforce  believed  that  nine 
tenths  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons 
would  vote  against  any  motion  the  friends  of  re- 
ligion might  make.  The  periodical  press  was 
almost  universally  opposed  to  introducing  the  gos- 
pel into  India;  and  the  high  ministers  of  state 
were  believed  to  be  utterly  devoid  of  sympathy 
with  missionary  efforts.^  Nothing  could  have  over- 
come all  this,  and  secured  ^freedom  to  the  missiona- 
ries in  India,  except  such  an  unlooked-for  devel- 
opment of  interest  in  missions  in  the  English 
churches,  as  was  evinced  by  nine  hundred  peti- 
tions, from  all  parts  of  the  country,  w^hich  came 
in  as  the  result  of  an  appeal  from  Wilberforce, 
Grant,  and  others,  together  with  the  addition  of 
two  of  Wilberforce's  eloquent  speeches  during  the 
progress  of  the  debate  in  Parliament.  The  char- 
ter was  finally  made  substantially  conformable  to 
the  wishes  of  the  friends  of  missions,  and  thus,  in 
the  good  providence  of  God,  India  was  thrown  open 
to  missionaries.  That  is  to  say,  English  missiona- 
ries could  no  longer  be  debarred  by  the  East  India 
government  from  entering  that  country. 

But  the  connection  of  the  government  with  the 

1  Marshman's  Life  and  Times,  etc.,  vol.  ii.  p.  3. 


AN  OPENING   WORLD.  13 

idolatry  of  the  country  continued  to  be  active,  and 
its  spirit  more  or  less  hostile  to  missions,  for  nearly 
thirty  years  longer ;  and  the  full  preparation  of  India 
for  the  gospel  was  not  before  the  year  1 857,  —  the 
year  of  the  great  mutiny  and  rebellion,  —  and  was 
the  immediate  consequence  of  that  terrible  convul- 
sion. Caste  was  the  last  idol  in  India  which  the 
English  rulers  ceased  to  dread.  Its  terror  lay 
mainly  in  the  Sepoy  army,  of  some  two  or  three 
hundred  thousands,  which  they  could  not  trust, 
and  did  not  know  how  to  disband.  At  length  this 
great  native  army  rebelled,  and  made  war  alike  upon 
English  rulers  and  native  Christians.  Everywhere 
English  dwellings  were  burned  down,  and  the  bodies 
of  more  than  fifteen  hundred  English  men  and 
women,  many  of  rank  and  culture,  "  lay  unburied 
upon  the  wastes,  the  food  of  dogs  and  jackals,  and 
of  foul  birds  of  prey ;  and  riot,  plunder,  and  mur- 
der strode  wildly  over  the  land."  ^  Yet  this  storm, 
after  it  had  passed,  was  found  to  have  been  a  rich 
blessing,  though  terribly  disguised.  The  Sepoy 
army  had  been  disbanded.  Caste  was  no  longer  a 
terror.  The  Moslem  power  was  broken.  And, 
what  was  perhaps  most  important  of  all,  it  was 
found  that  two  thousand  native  converts  had  en- 
dured persecution  firmly,  some  of  them  unto  death ; 
and  the  missionaries  thus  learned  to  hold  such  con- 
verts in  much  higher  estimation,  and  became  more 

1  Mullens'  Ten  Years  in  India,  p.  8. 


14  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

ready  to  repose  confidence  in  them  when  formed 
into  churches,  and  to  entrust  to  them  the  pastoral 
office.  To  crown  all,  the  reign  of  the  East  India 
Company  was  hrought  to  a  most  desirable  close,  and 
Sir  John  Lawrence,  one  of  the  ablest  and  best  of 
the  Christian  men  in  India,  was  placed  on  the  vice- 
regal throne. 

This  opening  of  a  population  of  more  than  six 
hundred  millions  in  India  and  Western  and  Eastern 
Asia,  to  the  missionaries  of  the  gospel,  may  all  be 
said  to  have  occurred  (excepting  the  earlier  wars 
with  the  Moslem  and  Pagan  powers)  after  the  year 
1812,  or  within  the  space  of  about  fifty  years,  and 
since  the  formation  of  the  American  Board.  I  be- 
lieve the  change,  for  magnitude  and  importance,  is 
without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  world.  And 
who  can  fail  to  see  the  hand  of  Him,  who,  with  all 
power  in  heaven  and  earth,  is  preparing  the  way  for 
His  people  to  carry  out  the  grand  purpose  of  His  re- 
demption. 

Were  I  to  pursue  this  illustration  of  a  world 
opening  to  the  gospel,  I  might  point  to  Western 
and  Southern  Africa,  to  Italy,  to  South  America, 
and  to  the  Isles  of  the  Pacific.  I  might  speak  of 
the  Protestant  ascendency  recently  gained  in  Cen- 
tral Europe,  of  the  recent  change  in  Spain,  and  of 
the  four  emancipated  millions  in  our  own  country. 

But  enough  has  been   said.     The  providence  of 


AN  OPENING   WORLD.  15 

God,  in  so  marvelously  opening  the  uncivilized  world 
for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,  naturally  leads  to 
the  inquiry,  whether  corresponding  changes  have 
meanwhile  occurred  in  the  Christian  world.  This 
will  be  the  topic  of  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER    II. 

AN    UPRISING    CHURCH. 

Preparations  in  the  Christian  World.  —  Development  of  a  Missionary- 
Spirit.  —  What  is  meant  by  it.  —  How  differing  from  that  of  Former 
Ages.  —  Missionary  Development  in  England,  and  its  Early  Charac- 
teristics. —  When  the  several  Evangelical  Denominations  of  Europe 
entered  upon  the  Work.  —  Missionary  Developments  in  the  United 
States.  —  Characteristics.  —  The  Time  come  for  attempting  the  Con- 
version of  the  World. 

The  providential  changes  in  the  Christian  world, 
of  which  I  am  now  to  speak,  did  not  severally  awaken 
any  great  attention  at  the  time  of  their  occurrence, 
but  we  now  see  in  them  the  hand  of  God.  Volumes 
would  not  exhaust  the  subject;  and  I  can  merely 
glance  at  the  more  important  topics.  Nor  is  it  need- 
ful that  I  do  more,  as  the  reader  must  already  be  so 
familiar  with  this  part  of  the  subject,  that  a  simple 
utterance  of  the  propositions  will  suggest  the  need- 
ful illustrations. 

Since  the  Reformation,  the  human  mind  in  the 
Christian  Church  has  been  continually  becoming 
more  free 'for  examining,  embracing,  and  promul- 
gating the  truths  of  the  gospel.  The  Bible  has  been 
set  at  liberty,  to  be  translated  into  all  languages,  and 
to  be  read  by  all  the  world.     The  apostolic  idea  of 


AN  UPRISING   CHURCH.  17 

the  local,  self-governed  church,  for  many  ages  in 
great  measure  lost  to  the  world,  has  been  recovered, 
as  one  of  the  great  results  of  the  Reformation.  A 
Christian  literature  has  been  created.  And,  finally, 
while  the  churches  remain  in  the  full  exercise  of 
their  ecclesiastical  prerogatives,  with  what  facility 
do  their  members,  whose  hearts  beat  in  unison  with 
the  Saviour's  command,  form  themselves  into  associa- 
tions, in  harmonious  cooperation  with  the  churches, 
and  really  a  part  of  their  organization,  for  collecting 
and  managing  the  funds  which  are  needed  to  fill  the 
world  with  preachers,  with  the  Scriptures,  and  with 
intelligent  readers  of  the  same.  These  are  all  im- 
mense results,  and  of  inestimable  value. 

In  a  general  view,  embracing  the  Christian  world 
at  large,  the  preparation  is  even  more  striking. 
We  see  it  in  all  the  domains  of  literature,  science, 
art,  commerce,  and  geographical  discovery;  in  the 
rebellions  and  revolutions  of  nations ;  in  the  history 
of  civilization  from  the  Reformation  until  now.  As 
compared  with  the  Roman  world,  in  the  first  ages 
of  Christianity,  or  with  the  Christian  world,  in  the 
Early  and  Middle  Ages,  everything  is  greatly 
changed.  The  tendency  among  Christian  nations 
now,  is  more  and  more  to  the  forming  of  interna- 
tional relations,  which  is  a  new  and  most  hopeful 
feature.  Life,  thought,  labor,  all  have  a  greatly  in- 
creased value,  because  of  the  immense  increase  of 
facilities  for  the  intercommunication  of  man  with 

2 


18  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

man.  With  our  railroads,  steamships,  and  tele- 
graphic wires;  with  our  electrotyping,  and  power- 
presses  ;  our  sciences,  arts,  and  commerce ;  with 
neither  Hun,  Vandal,  or  Moslem  to  set  back  the 
tide  of  civilization,  who  does  not  see  that  the  time 
for  blessing  the  whole  earth  with  the  gospel  has 
come,  and  that  this  is  the  grand  business  of  the 
churches  in  our  day  ? 

We  should  not  be  surprised,  then,  if,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  this,  and  the  result  of  divine  agency,  we 
find  also  a  new  and  strange  development  of  the  mis- 
sionary spirit,  and  a  strange  uprising  for  the  mis- 
sionary work,  throughout  the  evangelical  churches. 

This  suggests  our  third  and  last  topic,  namely, — 
the  development,  in  the  Evangelical  Church,  of  a 
missionary  spirit,  and  of  missionary  organizations, 
with  the  avowed  expectation  and  purpose  of  labor- 
ing for  the  conversion  of  the  whole  heathen  world. 

To  avoid  misapprehension,  I  define  what  I  mean 
by  the  missionary  spirit.  It  is  really  the  same  thing 
in  foreign  missions,  and  in  home  missions;  being 
the  earnest  response  of  a  believing  heart  to  the 
Saviour's  last  injunction.  I  of  course  use  the  phrase 
in  its  special  relation  to  foreign  missions.  Yet  it  is 
not  the  foreign  missionary  alone,  who  illustrates  this 
spirit.  It  is  as  really  illustrated  by  the  home  mis- 
sionary, and  by  every  pastor  who  labors  to  call  forth 
the  prayers  and  contributions  of  his  people  for  the 
conversion  of  the  world. 


AN  UPRISING  CHURCH.  19 

It  will  at  once  be  seen,  that  the  modern  develop- 
ment of  the  missionary  spirit  must  needs  differ  in 
many  respects  from  that  of  all  past  ages.  This  is 
owing  to  the  vastly  changed  condition,  already  de- 
scribed, both  of  the  unevangelized  world,  and  of 
Christendom.  The  missionary  spirit  is  now  intensely 
social  and  enterprising,  seeking  to  enlist  and  organ- 
ize Christians  in  large  bodies,  with  the  declared  and 
earnest  purpose  of  a  universal  diffusion  of  the  gospel. 
We  saw  it  not  in  this  form  in  the  apostolic  age,  nor 
do  we  in  any  of  the  subsequent  ages.  Indeed,  the 
missionary  spirit  is  possible  in  this  form  only  in  a 
considerably  advanced  Christian  civilization. 

I  am  not  able  distinctly  to  trace  a  historical  con- 
nection between  either  the  Danish  mission  to  India, 
commenced  in  1705,  or  the  Moravian  mission  to 
Greenland,  commenced  in  1733,  or  the  missions  to 
the  American  Indians  previous  to  1750,  with  the 
modern  development  of  the  missionary  spirit,  of 
which  I  am  now  treating ;  though  each  of  those  is 
worthy  of  all  honor,  and  of  a  grateful  commemora- 
tion. 

The  missionary  development,  in  its  modern  form, 
would  seem  to  have  had  its  rise  about  the  year  1789, 
in  the  efforts  of  William  Carey,  a  Baptist  minister 
in  the  interior  of  England,  who  afterwards  became 
a  distinguished  missionary  in  India.  The  project  of 
personally  effecting  a  mission  among  the  heathen, 


20  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

and  of  an  organized  movement  in  the  churches  at 
home  for  that  purpose,  seems  to  have  taken  full  pos- 
session of  his  soul.  Yet  he  found  little  encourage- 
ment among  his  ministerial  brethren.  Marshman, 
in  his  "  Life  and  Times  "  of  Carey  and  his  associates, 
relates  the  following  singular  occurrence  at  a  meet- 
ing of  Baptist  ministers  in  Northampton.  He  says  : 
"  Mr.  Ryland,  senior,  called  on  the  young  men 
around  him  to  propose  a  topic  for  discussion;  on 
which  Mr.  Carey  rose,  and  proposed  for  considera- 
tion '  The  duty  of  Christians  to  attempt  the  spread 
of  the  gospel  among  heathen  nations.'  The  vener- 
able divine  received  the  proposal  with  astonishment ; 
and,  springing  on  his  feet,  denounced  the  proposi- 
tion with  a  frown,  and  thundered  out,  '  Young  man, 
sit  down  ;  when  God  pleases  to  convert  the  heathen, 
he  will  do  it  without  your  aid,  or  mine.'  "  ^ 

It  is  diflScult  to  account  for  this  feeling  of  the 
good  old  minister,  even  should  we  suppose  him 
strongly  tinctured  with  the  antinomianism  then  so 
prevalent  among  his  brethren.  But  Mr.  Ryland  was 
not  thus  tinctured,  and  was  not  alone  in  this  feel- 
ing ;  for  we  are  told,  that  "  the  aged  and  more  in- 
fluential ministers  generally "  endeavored  to  dis- 
suade Mr.  Carey  from  what  they  deemed  "  so  vision- 
ary a  scheme."  ^  His  ultimate  success  was  with  men 
nearer  his  own  age  and  standing;  such  as  Andrew 
Fuller,  Sutcliff,  John  Ryland,  and  Pearce. 

1  Marshman's  Life  and  Times,  etc.,  vol.  i.  p.  10. 

2  Marshman,  vol.  i.  p.  14. 


AN  UPRISING  CHURCH.  21 

What  I  now  relate,  as  having'  occurred  in  the 
Scottish  Church,  is  on  the  same  authority,  and  is 
corroborated  by  other  testimony. 

In  the  year  1796,  after  the  Baptist  and  London 
Missionary  Societies  liad  both  been  formed,  a  prop- 
osition to  establish  a  foreign  mission  was  made  in 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland; 
and  "  was  treated,"  we  are  told,  "  not  only  as  an  un- 
natural, but  a  revolutionary  design."  A  clergyman 
by  the  name  of  Hamilton  asserted,  that  "  to  spread 
abroad  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel  among  barba- 
rous heathen  nations,  seemed  to  him  highly  prepos- 
terous, inasmuch  as  it  anticipates,  nay,  reverses  the 
order  of  nature."  "  Men,"  he  said,  "  must  be  pol- 
ished and  refined  in  their  manners,  before  they  can 
be  properly  enlightened  in  religious  truths.  The 
venerable  Dr.  Erskine  earnestly  opposed  those  views. 
But  Dr.  Hill  pronounced  missionary  societies  to  be 
highly  dangerous  in  their  tendencies  to  the  good 
order  of  society ;  and  Mr.  Boyle  declared  his  appre- 
hension that  their  funds  would  in  time  be  turned 
against  the  constitution,  and  therefore  the  General 
Assembly  ought  to  give  the  overtures  recommending 
them  its  most  serious  disapprobation,  and  its  im- 
mediate and  most  decisive  opposition .^ 

Yet  in  that  very  year  a  missionary  society  of 
moderate  size  was  formed  in  Edinburgh,  by  Presby- 

1  Marshman,  vol.  i.  p.  19.  See  also  Dr.  William  Brown's  History  of 
the  Propagation  of  Christianity,  vol.  ii.  p.  474. 


22  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

terians  and  others,  which  afterwards  took  the  name 
of  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society,  and  another  was 
formed  in  Glasgow  ;  both  of  which  sent  missionaries 
to  Western  Africa.  It  was  nearly  thirty  years  after 
the  debate  just  mentioned,  before  the  General  As- 
sembly of  Scotland  entered  on  foreign  missions,  but 
the  Church  of  Scotland  has  since  done  good  mission- 
ary service. 

I  must  state,  in  the  briefest  manner,  at  what  time 
the  different  European  evangelical  denominations 
entered  the  field.  The  English  Baptists,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  1792 ;  the  English  Independents  in  1795, 
in  the  London  Missionary  Society ;  the  Scottish  and 
Glasgow  Missionary  Societies  in  1796 ;  the  Dutch,  in 
the  Netherlands  Missionary  Society,  in  1797;  the 
Evangelical  English  Episcopalians,  in  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  in  1800 ;  the  Swiss,  in  the  Basle 
Missionary  Society,  in  1816  ;  the  English  Wesleyans 
in  1817  ;  and  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  1824.  Since 
then,  five  missionary  societies,  on  a  small  scale,  have 
been  formed  in  England ;  five  in  Scotland ;  one  in 
Ireland,  one  in  France ;  eight  in  Germany  and  Swit- 
zerland ;  one  in  Holland ;  one  in  Norway,  and  two  in 
Sweden.  And  the  annual  aggregate  income  of  these 
thirty-three  European  missionary  societies,  in  the 
year  1866,  exceeded  $3,500,000. 

I  come  now  to  the  development  of  the  foreign 
missionary  spirit  in  our  own  country. 


AN  UPRISING   CHURCH.  23 

It  was  a  leading  object  with  the  "  Pilgrims  "  in 
migrating  to  this  western  continent,  to  extend  the 
Redeemer's  kingdom  in  lands  where  Christ  had  not 
been  named.  They  worked  under  great  disadvan- 
tage ;  but  the  age  of  John  Eliot,  from  1646  to  1675, 
is  said,  with  probable  justice,  to  have  been  as  really 
a  missionary  age  in  New  England,  as  is  the  present ; 
and  that  portion  of  our  country  is  believed  to  have 
done  as  much  then  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen, 
in  proportion  to  its  ability,  as  it  is  doing  now.^  Of 
Eliot's  translation  of  the  Bible,  a  single  copy  of 
which  (because  so  few  copies  are  in  existence)  is  now 
worth  a  large  sum,  three  thousand  five  hundred  copies 
were  printed  at  Cambridge  ;  and  these  were  the  only 
Bibles  printed  in  America  for  a  long  time.  In  1675, 
as  the  result  of  the  labors  of  Eliot  and  perhaps  a 
dozen  other  missionaries,  there  were  fourteen  settle- 
ments of  "  praying  Indians,"  with  a  population  of 
three  thousand  and  six  hundred,  and  twenty-four 
regular  congregations,  with  as  many  Indian  preach- 
ers. The  whole  formed  a  partially  civilized  Christian 
community.  It  suffered  greatly  in  King  Philip's  war, 
which  commenced  in  1675.  But  the  missions  were 
continued,  and  in  1696  there  were  thirty  Indian 
churches  in  Massachusetts  alone,  some  with  Indian 
pastors ;  and  the  number  of  Christian  Indians  was 
somewhat  over  four  thousand.^     The  missions  were 

1  Tracy's  History  of  the  American  Board,  p.  21 . 

2  See  Tracy's  History  of  the  American  Board,  for  a  more  extended 
account  of  the  early  missions  to  the  Indians. 


24  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

nearly  suspended  in  the  revolutionary  war ;  but  were 
revived  early  in  the  present  century. 

Missions  to  the  Indians  have,  therefore,  been 
always  sustained  in  this  country.  It  remains  for  me 
to  show,  though  in  the  briefest  manner,  how  the 
American  missions  were  revived  on  a  much  broader 
scale. 

The  Foreign  Missionary  Societies  now  existing  in 
our  country,  were  formed  in  the  following  order. 
The  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions,  in  1810;  the  American  Baptist  Mission- 
ary Union,  in  1814 ;  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Mis- 
sionary Society,  in  1819 ;  the  Board  of  the  Reformed 
Dutch  Church,  in  1832 ;  the  Free-will  Baptist  Foreign 
Missionary  Society,  in  1833 ;  the  Presbyterian  Board 
•of  Foreign  Missions,  in  1833  (though  the  Presby- 
terian Church  properly  dates  its  entrance  upon 
foreign  missions  as  far  back  as  the  year  1812,  when 
it  commenced  that  associated  operation  through  the 
American  Board  which  a  portion  of  it  still  con- 
tinues) ;  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Board  of  Missions, 
in  1835  (though  Episcopal  missionaries  had  been 
sent  to  Greece  five  years  before) ;  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Missionary  Society,  in  1837 ;  the  Re- 
formed Presbyterian,  the  Associate  Presbyterian, 
and  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbyterian,  in  1844 ; 
the  Southern  Baptist  Board,  in  1845 ;  the  American 
Missionary  Association,  in  1846 ;  the  American  and 


AN  UPRISING  CHURCH^  25 

Foreign  Christian  Union,  in  1850  ;  the  United  Pres- 
byterian (by  union  of  the  Associate  and  Associate 
Reformed),  in  1859;  the  American  Church  Mission- 
ary Society,  in  1860 ;  and  the  Southern  Presbyterian 
Board,  in  1861. 

Two  or  three  of  the  more  important  character- 
istics in  the  development  of  our  present  missionary 
spirit,  should  receive  a  brief  notice. 

1.  It  had  a  small  beginning  and  many  discourage- 
ments in  this  country,  as  it  had  in  England.  So 
far  as  is  known,  the  idea  of  a  personal  consecration 
to  a  foreign  mission  was  first  entertained  by  a  few 
students  in  Williams  College,  in  1808,  and  after- 
wards by  those  and  others  in  the  Andover  Theological 
Seminary.  But  they  found  so  little  sympathy  in  the 
religious  community,  that  they  long  kept  their  in- 
tention a  secret.  When  at  length  they  ventured^to 
ask  advice  at  Bradford  of  the  General  Association 
of  Massachusetts,  two  of  the  six  names  on  their  paper 
were  stricken  off,  lest  so  many  candidates  for  a 
foreign  mission  should  alarm  the  clerical  body.  Our 
Christian  community,  as  a  whole,  was  then  far  from 
being  ready  to  approve  of  their  mission.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Sanborn,  of  Reading,  in  Massachusetts,  a  good 
man,  expressed  the  widely  extended  sentiment  of  the 
community  when,  at  a  conference  with  the  young 
candidates  in  Professor  Stuart's  study  in  Andover, 
he  said,  —  after  expressing  his  sense  of  the  import- 
ance  of  the  object,  —  that  the  project   seemed  to 


26  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

savor  of  infatuation ;  that  the  proposal  was  pre- 
mature ;  that  we  had  more  work  at  home  than  we 
could  do ;  and  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  meet 
the  expense.^ 

It  is  the  opinion  of  some  good  men,  now,  that  the 
American  Board,  the  first  foreign  missionary  society 
formed  in  this  country,  ought  to  have  been  consti- 
tuted by  a  vote  of  the  individual  Congregational 
churches,  rather  than  by  that  of  a  General  Associa- 
tion. But  the  Congregational  churches,  as  a  body, 
were  not  then  interested  enough  to  vote  generally  on 
the  subject.  A  general  vote  could  not  have  been 
obtained.  And  if  it  could,  the  vote  would  doubtless 
have  been  against  going  forward,  at  that  time,  in 
missions  to  foreign  heathen  nations. 

2.  That  the  missionary  spirit  is  yet  far  from  being 
air  all-pervading  sentiment  in  the  churches,  is  evinced 
by  the  large  number  of  church-members  —  from  a 
fourth  to  one  third  —  who  are  known  to  give  nothing 
in  support  of  the  cause. 

3.  There  has,  however,  been  an  encouraging  prog- 
ress. The  most  spiritual,  prayerful,  active,  and  in- 
telligent members  of  the  evangelical  churches  have, 
to  great  extent,  been  at  length  partially  enlisted ; 
and  they  are  acting  on  principle,  and  have  enlisted 
for  life.  The  contributions  are  an  evidence  of  ad- 
vance.    Those  in  this  country,  for  foreign  missions, 

1  Memorial  Volume  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions,  p.  52. 


AN  UPRISING  CHURCH.  27 

in  the  year  1811,  amounted  to  only  11,667 ;  but  in    / 
the  year  1868,  their  sum  total  exceeded  11,600,000. 

In  a  review  of  the  facts  which  have  passed  under 
survey,  the  conclusion  seems  irresistible,  that  the 
time  for  all  the  friends  of  the  Redeemer  to  pray, 
plan,  and  labor  for  the  speedy  conversion  of  the 
world,  has  come.  How  do  we  account  for  all  this  ? 
What  does  it  mean  ?  Within  the  memory  of  many 
who  are  now  living,  the  world  has  been  strangely 
opened,  as  by  a  miracle,  and  made  accessible  to  the 
gospel.  Why  is  this  ?  And  why  has  such  a  vast, 
systematic  organization  grown  up  of  associations 
over  the  Christian  world,  with  the  specific  and  de- 
clared purpose  to  publish  the  gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture ?  Never  was  such  a  thing  seen  before.  Why 
has  the  great  and  blessed  God  crowded  so  many  and 
such  stupendous  results  into  our  day  ?  I  am  unable 
to  answer  these  inquiries,  except  on  the  supposition 
that  the  "  fullness  of  time  "  has  come  for  the  com- 
manded and  predicted  publication  of  the  gospel 
through  the  world.  Surely  there  has  never  been  an 
age  like  the  present.  Never  did  churches,  never 
did  individual  Christians,  never  did  any  man  with  the 
gospel  in  his  hands,  stand  in  such  a  relation  to  the 
unevangelized  world,  as  we  now  do.  Not  only  is  that 
world  accessible,  but  it  lies  on  our  very  borders. 
Men  sometimes  complain  of  the  frequency  and  the 
urgency  of  the  calls  on  their  religious  benevolence, 


28  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

or  upon  their  missionary  service.  But  do  they  not 
see  that  these  calls  result  from  the  character  which 
God  has  impressed  upon  our  age,  and  from  the  rela- 
tions we  stand  in  to  the  surrounding  world  ?  Our 
fathers  of  the  last  century  had  no  such  calls  from 
nations  heyond  the  limits  of  Christendom ;  and  they 
had  not,  hecause  those  nations  were  then  compara- 
tively unknown,  or  else  were  unapproachable.  But 
God  has  been  pleased  to  lift  the  pall  of  death  from  off 
the  heathen  world ;  to  bring  it  near ;  and  to  fill  our 
eyes  with  the  sight  and  our  ears  with  the  cry  of 
their  distress.  He  has  leveled  mountains  and  bridged 
oceans,  which  separated  the  benighted  nations  from 
us,  and  made  for  us  a  highway  to  every  land.  To  us 
he  says,  "  Go  !  "  —  with  an  emphasis  and  a  meaning 
such  as  this  command  never  had  to  ministers  and 
Christians  in  former  ages. 


CHAPTER    III. 

DEVELOPMENT     OF    THE     IDEA    OF    THE     CHRISTIAN 
CHURCH. 

The  Apostles  Missionaries.  —  Their  Missions  the  Model  for  all  Mis- 
sions. —  Theirs  a  Missionary  Age Surveyed  from  a  Missionary 

Stand-point.  —  A  New  and  Great  Idea.  —  Developed  in  the  Face  of 
Jewish  Prejudices.  —  Jewish  Notion  of  Messiah's  Reign.  —  Idea 
underlying  the  Prediction  of  Messiah's  Kingdom.  —  Backwardness 
to  receive  Gentile  Converts  simply  as  Christians.  —  The  Judaizing 
Doctrine  disowned  by  the  Apostles.  —  "Why  they  were  so  long  in 
Jerusalem.  —  Reserve  of  the  Supernatural.  —  Unrecorded  Years  of 
St.  Paul.  —  Mission  to  Cyprus.  —  Labors  at  Antioch.  —  Ritualists. 
Matters  referred  to  Jerusalem.  —  The  Church  Idea  developed,  and 
St.  Paul  enters  on  his  Mission.  —  Why  the  Intellectual  Christian 
Life  was  so  slowly  developed. 

Experience  has  brought  me  to  the  conchision, 
that  the  apostolic  missions  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  substantially  the  model  for  Christian  missions  to 
the  heathen  in  all  subsequent  ages.  I  may  then  be 
allowed,  thus  early  in  the  discussion,  to  ask  atten- 
tion to  those  missions,  as  they  are  set  forth  in  the 
New  Testament,  and  beheld  from  a  missionary  stand- 
point. 

The  apostles  were  really  missionaries,  though 
with  an  inspiration  and  authority  peculiar  to  them- 
selves, and  with  miraculous  powers  that  were  not 


30  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

transmitted.  Timothy,  Titus,  and  others  their  com- 
panions, usually  called  Evangelists,  were  missiona- 
ries in  the  ordinary  sense.  The  apostolic  age  was 
preeminently  a  missionary  age,  and  will  best  be 
understood  when  contemplated  as  such ;  and  it  is 
as  such  that  I  propose  now  to  view  it,  presenting 
the  facts  as  I  find  them  in  the  inspired  record. 
That  record  being  inspired,  it  is  of  course  infal- 
libly correct,  and  whatever  there  is  in  it  of  doc- 
trine or  duty,  is  from  God.  But  it  does  not  fol- 
low, that  the  first  missionaries  did  not  profit  by 
the  teachings  of  experience  in  the  prosecution  of 
their  missions.  It  will  appear  as  we  proceed,  I 
think,  that  they  did  thus  profit,  and  that  there  is 
therefore,  much  in  their  experience  which  we  may 
use  for  our  own  instruction  and  encouragement. 

The  first  thing  claiming  our  attention,  is  the  pro- 
cess by  which  the  Christian  Idea  of  a  Church 
was  originally  developed.  It  was  a  remarkable  pro- 
cess. And  it  is  the  more  important  for  us  to  con- 
sider it,  and  the  time  it  took  to  develop  that  idea, 
because  we  have  been  much  longer  in  modern  mis- 
sions, as  I  shajl  have  occasion  to  show  hereafter,  in 
working  out  the  true,  spiritual  idea  of  missions. 
Considering  the  strength  and  prevalence  of  the 
Judaizing  spirit  and  prejudices  in  the  apostolic  age, 
we  must  not  wonder  that  there  was  a  tardy  develop- 
ment of  so  new  and  great  an  idea,  as  a  Church  for 


THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH.  31 

THE  WHOLE  WORLD;  involving  baptism,  to  take 
the  place  of  circumcision  ;  the  relation  sustained  to 
Abraham,  as  the  Father  of  the  Faithful,  to  he  no 
longer  one  of  descent,  or  of  blood,  but  simply  one 
of  faith ;  and  the  promises  of  the  Old  Testament  to 
be  no  longer  understood  as  applicable  exclusively  to 
the  Jews  as  such,  but  to  the  Christian  Church.  This 
grand  idea  —  the  hope  of  a  perishing  world  —  was 
wrought  out  through  years  of  strife,  imprisonments, 
and  blood.  This  process  I  am  now  to  consider  in  its 
several  aspects.     And,  — 

1.  The  apostles,  when  chosen  to  be  such,  were 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  Jewish  notion,  that 
the  Messiah  was  to  reign  personally  on  earth — to 
have  a  temporal  kingdom,  and  to  elevate  the  Jews 
to  the  rank  of  a  royal  nation.  And  the  evidence 
that  they  retained  this  notion  until  after  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ,  appears  in  the  question  put  by 
^hem  to  their  Lord  before  his  ascension.  We  are 
told  that  they  then  asked  him,  "  Lord,  wilt  thou 
at  this  time  restore  again  the  kingdom  to  Israel  ?  "  ^ 
As  there  is  ample  proof  that  this  error  of  the  apos- 
tles prevented  them,  while  entertained,  from  clearly 
apprehending  the  spiritual  nature  oi  the  kingdom 
their  Lord  had  come  to  set  up,  he  might  perhaps 
have  been  expected  to  eradicate  it  while  he  was  with 
them.  But  he  did  not,  and  his  reply  to  the  question 
proposed  was  :  "  It  is  not  for  you  to  know  the  times 

1  Acts  i.  6. 


32  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

or  the  seasons  wliich  the  Father  hath  put  in  his 
own  power;  but  ye  shall  receive  power  after  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you."  ^  And  no  doubt 
they  did  at  length  arrive  at  a  correct  apprehension 
of  this  subject,  under  the  teachings  of  the  Spirit. 
St.  Paul  fully  comprehended  the  grand  idea  under- 
lying the  predictions  of  Messiah's  kingdom.  Writ- 
ing to  the  Galatians,  and  to  the  Romans,  during  his 
second  visit  to  Corinth,  he  boldly  sets  forth  the 
purely  spiritual  nature  of  Messiah's  reign.  He 
declares,  that  under  that  reign,  —  that  is,  under 
the  Christian  dispensation,  —  "  there  is  neither  Jew 
nor  Greek,  neither  male  nor  female,"  but  that  all 
are  "  one  in  Christ  Jesus."  He  affirms,  that  all 
who  are  Christ's,  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews,  "  are 
Abraham's  seed,  and  heirs  according  to  the  prom- 
ise ;  "  '^  that  the  middle  'wall  of  partition  between 
Jews  and  Gentiles  is  broken  down  by  the  gospel.^ 
This  was  what  so  especially  roused  the  enmity  of 
the  Jews.  "  He  is  not  a  Jew,"  says  the  apostle, 
"which  is  one  outwardly;  neither  is  that  circum- 
cision, which  is  outward  in  the  flesh ;  but  he  is  a 
Jew,  who  is  one  inwardly,  and  circumcision  is  that 
of  the  heart,  in  the  spirit,  and  not  in  the  let- 
ter." *  Meaning,  that  Jewish  descent  and  circum- 
cision were  no  longer  to  be  considered,  in  gathering 
a  Christian   church.     Again,  he  declares  Abraham 

1  Acts  i.  7,  8,  2  Gal.  iii.  28,  29. 

8  Eph.  ii.  14.  *  Rom.  ii.  28,  29. 


TEE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH.  33 

to  be  "  the  father  of  all  them  that  believe,  though 
they  be  not  circumcised."  "  For,"  he  adds,  "  the 
promise  that  he  should  be  the  heir  of  the  world, 
was  not  to  Abraham,  or  his  seed,  through  the  law, 
but  through  the  righteousness  of  faith."  ^  Which 
can  mean  no  less  than  that  the  promises  and  bless- 
ings connected  with  the  covenant  made  with  Abra- 
ham, are  the  common  inheritance  of  all  who  possess 
his  faith,  to  whatever  age  or  nation  they  may  be- 
long. 

Thus  broadly  did  the  holy  apostle  lay  the  ever- 
enduring  foundations  of  the  Christian  Church.  But 
the  chronological  development,  and  full  acceptance 
of  this  grand  idea  by  the  apostles,  was  not  until 
years  after  the  day  of  Pentecost. 

2.  A  remarkable  fact,  considering  the  positive 
nature  of  the  Saviour's  parting  command,  was  the 
apparent  backwardness  of  the  apostles  and  their 
Jewish  brethren  to  receive  heathen  converts  into 
the  church  simply  as  Christians,  without  their  being 
first  circumcised.  Notwithstanding  the  tongues 
of  fire,  notwithstanding  the  vision  of  Peter,  not- 
withstanding the  conversion  of  Gentiles  to  Chris- 
tianity, but  not  to  Judaism,  and  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  them,  notwithstanding  the  voice  of  the 
ascending  Lord,  commanding  to  go  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature; 
baptizing  all  who  believe  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 

1  Rom.  iv.  11,  13. 
3 


84  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  no  for- 
mal decision  on  this  subject  appears  to  have  been 
reached  by  the  apostles,  until  after  the  memorable 
discussion  at  Jerusalem,  in  which  Paul  and  Barnabas 
assisted,  and  declared  the  ''miracles  and  wonders 
God  had  wrought  among  the  Gentiles  by  them."  ^ 
It  was  not  until  then,  that  the  ritualistic  doctrine, 
so  obnoxious  to  those  missionaries  and  to  their  Gen- 
tile converts,  was  authoritatively  and  publicly  dis- 
owned. This  was  as  many  as  ten  or  twelve  years 
after  Paul's  conversion. 

3.  Another  fact  worthy  of  attention  is,  the  proba- 
ble cause  of  the  long  abode  of  the  twelve  apostles  at 
Jerusalem.  They  had  been  instructed  by  their  Lord 
to  remain  there  until  they  were  endowed  with  power 
from  on  high ;  ^  but  they  appear  to  have  remained 
there  much  longer,  and  we  are  left  by  the  sacred  his- 
torian without  any  certain  information  when,  and  how 
far,  any  of  them  went  forth  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
Gentile  nations. 

It  is  nowhere  intimated  in  the  Scriptures  that 
the  apostles  were  wrong  in  this.  We  know  that 
they  were  active  in  their  ministry  among  the  Jews. 
They  "  gave  themselves  continually  to  prayer  and  to 
the  ministry  of  the  word."  ^  St.  Paul,  in  his  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians,  testifies  to  the  effective  mission  of 
Peter  to  his  own  countrymen.  At  the  same  time  he 
informs  the  Galatian  church  that  James,  Peter,  and 

1  Acts  XV.  12.  2  L^ii^e  xxiv.  47,  49.  ^  ^^tg  yj  4^ 


THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH.  35 

John,  the  three  leading  apostles,  gave  to  him  and 
Barnabas  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  when  they 
were  at  Jerusalem,  that  thej^  should  labor  among 
the  Gentiles,  while  the  three  apostles  and  their  im- 
mediate associates  devoted  themselves  to  the  Jews.^ 
This  apparently  disproportionate  amount  of  labor 
among  the  Jews,  probably  arose  from  the  extreme 
danger  to  which  the  Jewish-Christian  churches,  and 
the  Gentile  churches,  were  exposed  from  the  ritual- 
istic Judaizing  members  of  the  church.  Those 
erring  but  zealous  brethren  were  everywhere  an 
annoyance  to  the  Apostle  Paul  during  his  whole 
missionary  life.  They  were  so  even  among  churches 
gathered  from  the  Gentiles ;  and  how  much  worse 
must  the  case  have  been  in  Judea.  Hence  the  ne- 
cessity, at  that  time,  of  having  an  acknowledged 
human  authority  in  matters  ecclesiastical ;  and  since 
the  apostles  alone  possessed  such  authority,  it  may 
have  been  deemed  important  for  most  of  them  to 
reside  where  their  advice  and  decisions  could  have 
the  weight  of  the  collective  body,  until  the  Christian 
commonwealth  should  have  settled  upon  its  true 
foundation.  In  this  way  we  account  for  the  pro- 
longed residence  of  the  apostles  in  Jerusalem.  The 
necessity  arose  from  that  mysterious  economy  of 
sovereign  grace,  by  which  the  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  were  so  restricted  in  their  influence  upon 
Jewish  opinions  and  prejudices.     And  this  may  have 

i  Gal.  ii.  8,  9. 


36  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

been  among  the  principal  reasons,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  why  the  original  band  of  the  apostles  had 
no  more  opportunity  for  engaging  in  missions  in  the 
Gentile  world. 

This  reserve  of  the  illuminating  agency  of  the 
Spirit  is  more  noticeable  from  its  having  been  in  an 
age  so  conspicuous  for  the  supernatural;  but  it  is 
only  the  development  of  a  permanent  law  of  grace  — 
namely,  to  put  forth  no  more  of  supernatural  agency 
than  is  needful  —  which  we  shall  find  in  every  age 
of  the  church,  and  to  which  we  need  to  give  heed. 

4.  It  is  due  to  the  Apostle  Paul,  that  I  ofier  a  few 
suggestions  on  the  six  or  seven  unrecorded  years  of 
his  early  Christian  life,  since  they  stand  connected 
with  the  subject  under  consideration.  I  believe  it 
is  a  common  opinion,  that  his  missionary  life  com- 
menced with  his  tour  to  Cyprus  and  Asia  Minor. 
But  there  is  a  strong  improbability  in  such  an  as- 
sumption. From  St.  Paul's  bold  and  zealous  preach- 
ing of  Christ  in  the  synagogues  of  Damascus, 
"  straightway  "  after  his  conversion,  I  think  it  right 
to  infer,  that  he  could  not  have  been  silent  during 
the  three  years  of  his  comparative  retirement  in 
Arabia;  though  we  are  not  informed  how  he  was 
employed.  We  may  suppose  it  was  in  those  years 
he  received  some  at  least  of  the  abundant  revela- 
tions of  which  he  speaks  so  emphatically  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.^    At  the   expiration  of 

1  2  Cor.  xii. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH.  37 

that  time  he  went  to  Jerusalem  to  see  Peter,  and 
abode  with  him  fifteen  days.  He  saw,  also,  James, 
the  Lord's  brother.^  And  it  is  pleasant  to  think 
how  large  a  part  of  this  visit,  both  with  Petei*  and 
James,  must  have  been  employed,  by  this  young 
candidate  for  the  foreign  missionary  service,  in  draw- 
ing from  their  well-stored  memories  the  facts  in  the 
history  of  the  blessed  Saviour.  It  was  probably  at 
this  time  he  was  entranced  while  praying  in  the 
temple,  and  was  directed  by  the  Lord  to  leave  Jeru- 
salem at  once,  and  go  "  far  hence  to  the  Gentiles," 
since  the  people  of  Jerusalem  would  not  receive  his 
testimony  .2 

He  withdrew  to  his  native  province  of  Cilicia. 
And  now  we  have  as  many  as  four  more  unrecorded 
years.  But  was  not  the  apostle  true  to  his  original 
calling,  and  to  the  injunction  to  preach  to  the  Gen- 
tiles, so  lately  received  from  his  Master  ?  I  have  no 
doubt  that  he  was.  This  I  infer  from  his  decisive 
character ;  from  his  previous  history  at  Damascus 
and  Jerusalem;  and  from  the  fact  that  Barnabas, 
when  overburdened  with  ministerial  labors  at  An- 
tioch,  and  needing  a  helper,  went  down  to  Tarsus  to 
obtain  the  aid  of  Paul.  Doubtless  he  had  been  suc- 
cessfully employed  in  planting  those  churches  in 
Cilicia,  and  the  adjoining  districts  of  Syria,  of  which 
mention  is  made  in  the  subsequent  history.^  And 
we  may  presume  it  was  here  and  now  he  was  sub- 

1  Gal.  i.  18,  19.  '^  Acts  xxii.  18,  21.  »  Qal.  i.  21. 


38  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

jected  to  some  of  tUe  Jewish  scoiirgings,  the  beatings 
with  Roman  rods,  the  journeyings,  and  the  perils  of 
waters  and  robbers,  in  the  city  and  in  the  wilder- 
ness, of  which  he  speaks,  fourteen  years  later,  when 
writing  to  the  Corinthians.^ 

It  is  recorded  of  Paul  and  Barnabas,  that,  in  this 
reunion  at  Antioch,  "they  assembled  themselves 
with  the  church,  and  taught  much  people,  for  a 
whole  year."  ^  These  words  of  Scripture  would  seem 
to  restrict  their  labors  to  the  great  heathen  city  of 
Antioch;  but  while  I  was  travelling  through  that 
region,  in  the  year  1855,  and  beheld  the  remains  of 
ancient  cities  and  villages  all  easy  of  access  from 
Antioch,  I  could  not  resist  the  impression,  that  these 
two  popular  and  enterprising  preachers  found  time 
to  make  their  voices  heard  over  no  small  part  of  the 
then  heathen  country,  now  so  usefully  occupied  by 
American  missionaries. 

About  the  year  forty-five  or  forty-eight,  the 
"  prophets  and  teachers  "  in  the  church  of  Antioch 
were  directed  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  they  ministered 
to  the  Lord  and  fasted,  to  separate  Barnabas  and 
Saul,  two  of  their  number,  and  the  most  eminent 
and  useful  among  the  few  who  were  laboring  in  that 
only  partially  Christianized  metropolis  of  the  East, 
for  a  more  distant  service  than  any  hitherto  per- 
formed. This  was  a  new  and  important  step  in  ad- 
vance ;  and  thus  originated  the  mission  to  Cyprus 

1  2  Cor.  xi.  '^  Acts  xi.  26. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH.  39 

and  Asia  Minor,  which  occupied  a  year  or  more. 
And  here  it  should  be  remarked,  that  their  selection 
for  this  foreign  mission  was  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  that 
their  formal  recognition  by  the  laying  on  of  hands, 
with  prayer  and  fasting,  was  by  their  ministerial 
associates,  the  prophets  and  teachers ;  that  this  was 
in  no  sense  an  introduction  to  the  gospel  ministry, 
for  they  had  both  been  in  that  ministry,  and  promi- 
nently so,  for  years;  that  there  is  no  evidence  of 
their  having  been  in  any  proper  sense  then  sent 
forth  as  missionaries  by  the  church  at  Antioch ;  and 
no  evidence  of  that  church  having  done  anything  for 
their  support  on  that  mission,  except  what  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that,  on  their  return,  they 
"  gathered  the  church  in  that  city  together,  and  re- 
hearsed "  to  it  "  all  that  God  had  done  with  them, 
and  how  he  had  opened  the  door  of  faith  unto  the 
Gentiles."  And  for  two  years  or  more  after  this,  or 
(as  the  sacred  narrative  has  it)  "  for  a  long  time," 
there  is  no  evidence  of  a  movement  in  that  metro- 
politan church  to  renew  the  mission. ^ 

A  principal  cause  of  this  apparent  weakness  of  the 
Christian  spirit  in  the  Antiochian  church  may  have 
been  the  influence  of  high-church  teachers  from 
Judea,  who  created  no  small  dissension  there  by 
their  notions  of  the  constitution  of  the  Christian 
Church ;  holding  that  all,  who  would  enjoy  its  priv- 
ileges, must  first  be  circumcised  after  the  Mosaic 

1  Acts  xiv.  27,  28. 


40  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

law.  To  be  consistent,  they  must  have  held,  that" 
there  was  no  true  church  in  which  this  principle 
was  not  followed.  Indeed,  they  went  so  far  as  to 
teach  that  none  could  be  saved  who  were  not  circum- 
cised after  the  manner  of  Moses,  and  thus  entered 
the  church. 1  They  of  course  met  with  strenuous 
opposition  from  the  two  missionaries;  and  it  was 
finally  decided  to  refer  the  matter  to  the  apostles  at 
Jerusalem.  Paul  and  Barnabas,  with  others,  were 
accordingly  sent  thither  for  that  purpose.  The 
event  shows  that  those  two  brethren  must  have  gone 
with  the  determined  purpose  of  having  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  churches  among  the  Gentiles  were 
to  be  constituted,  fully  and  formally  decided.  Such, 
happily,  was  the  result ;  and  after  laboring  somewhat 
longer  at  Antioch,  the  two  missionaries  resolved  to 
revisit  the  churches  they  had  planted  on  their  former 
missionary  tour. 

This  meeting  at  Jerusalem  was  in  after  ages,  and 
is  still,  called  a  Council.  But  it  was  not  such,  in  the 
common  acceptation  of  that  term.  It  was  simply  a 
reference  of  an  ecclesiastical  question,  which  had 
awakened  feeling  and  prejudices,  and  divided  the 
opinion  of  the  churches,  to  the  judgment  of  the  only 
body  of  men  recognized  as  having  authority  in  such 
matters,  namely,  the  apostles ;  who,  in  an  assembly 
of  the  whole  Jerusalem  church,  gave  a  full  hearing 
to  the  two  missionary  brethren. 

1  Acts  XV.  1 . 


THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH.  41 

The  constitution  of  the  Gentile  Christian  churches 
was  now  settled  hy  apostolic  authority,  and  on  a 
spiritual  basis;  and  the  needful  preliminaries  were 
completed  for  the  regular  prosecution  of  the  life- 
work  of  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 

With  the  apostle's  second  tour,  —  which  gave  the 
gospel  to  Europe,  and  to  us,  —  about  the  year  fifty- 
one,  began  his  uninterrupted  career  as  a  foreign 
missionary ;  which  terminated  only  with  his  martyr- 
dom at  Rome,  between  the  years  sixty-two  and  sixty- 
eight.     A  short  time,  truly,  for  so  great  a  work. 

Some  of  the  facts,  to  which  I  have  briefly  ad- 
verted, are  among  the  most  notable  in  the  history  of 
the  church,  and  doubtless  involve  principles  worthy 
of  our  serious  attention.  For  that  age  of  marvelous 
divine  interpositions,  they  certainly  involve  a  reserve 
we  should  not  have  expected,  in  the  use  of  supernat- 
ural agency  on  the  minds  of  men.  The  spiritual 
illumination  of  the  apostles,  excepting  the  matter 
of  inspiration,  though  extraordinary,  differed  only  in 
degree  from  the  ordinary  spiritual  illuminations. 
There  was  no  coercion  of  the  mind.  Prejudice,  error, 
conflicting  opinions,  were  as  possible  in  that  age  of 
miracles  as  they  are  now,  and  the  triumphs  of 
faith  over  sin  were  wrought  in  the  same  manner. 
"  Miracles,"  as  has  been  well  said,  "  did  not  con- 
vert; inspiration  did  not  sanctify.  Then,  as  now, 
imperfection  and  evil  clung  to  the  members,  and 


42  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

clogged  the  energies  of  the  kingdom  of  God. "  ^ 
The  slowness  of  the  first  missionaries  in  apprehend- 
ing the  spiritual  nature  of  Christ's  kingdom,  and 
afterwards  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  Christian 
Church ;  their  backwardness  to  receive  Gentile  con- 
verts into  the  church  on  a  purely  Christian  basis ; 
and  finally  the  wonderful  fact,  as  recorded  in  the 
New  Testament,  that  nearly  the  whole  of  what  may 
properly  be  called  the  foreign  missionary  work  of  that 
age,  was  performed  by  a  single  apostle  and  his  assist- 
ants, must  of  course  have  been  foreseen  and  intended 
by  our  Lord,  and  formed  a  part  of  his  all-wise  plan ; 
and  there  must  have  been  a  fitness  in  these  his 
chosen  instruments,  and  in  his  manner  of  treating 
them,  to  the  ends  he  had  in  view.  Had  he  seen  fit, 
how  easily  might  he  have  given  every  one  of  his 
apostles,  and  every  Jewish  disciple,  an  immediate 
and  thorough  insight  into  the  spiritual  nature  of 
his  kingdom,  so  that  the  constitution  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  for  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews,  might  have 
been  settled  without  delay.  This  reserve  of  super- 
natural agency,  at  a  time  when  it  was  so  frequently 
exerted  upon  the  minds  of  men,  leaving  the  grand 
results  to  be  wrought  out  more  slowly  by  the  opera- 
tion of  natural  causes,  may  have  been  necessary  to 
the  best  permanent  development  of  the  church. 
Had  the  apostles,  James,  Peter,  and  John,  and  their 
associates   at   Jerusalem,  been  carried   forward   as 

A  Conybeare  and  Howson's  Life  of  St.  Paid,  vol.  i.  p.  456. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH.  43 

rapidly  in  the  intellectual  development  of  the  Chris- 
tian life,  as  was  the  Apostle  Paul,  it  is  easy  to  see 
that,  without  a  constant  miracle,  they  would  all  have 
heen  driven  from  Judea,  as  St.  Paul  actually  was. 

I  should  here  repeat  the  remark,  that  in  view  of 
this  tardy  development  of  the  exclusively  spiritual 
nature  of  the  apostolic  missions,  we  shall  he  less 
surprised  when  we  shall  see,  that  a  much  longer 
time  was  occupied  in  developing  the  purely  spiritual 
nature  of  the  modern  missionary  work. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

CHARACTERISTICS   OP  THE   APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS. 

Silence  of  Inspired  History  as  to  Apostolic  Missions.  —  Small  Credit 
given  to  Uninspired  Accounts.  —  Why  the  Mission  of  St.  Paul  is 
alone  considered.  —  His  Relation  to  the  Lord  Jesus.  —  His  Under- 
standing of  Christ's  Commission.  —  His  Use  of  Local  Churches,  and 
Care  for  them.  —  His  Confidence  in  them.  —  The  Idea  of  the  Local 
Church  afterwards  lost.  —  Its  Importance.  —  How  the  Apostolic 
Missionaries  appeared  to  their  Contemporaries.  —  How  supported. 
What  Classes  composed  their  Churches.  —  Influence  of  Pious  Fe- 
males, —  Character  of  Primitive  Churches.  —  Apostolic  Success.  — 
Summary. 

It  is  among  the  mysteries  of  Providence,  that  the 
book  of  Acts  gives  no  account  of  the  closing  labors 
of  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  none  of  the  labors  of  the 
other  apostles  bearing  directly  on  the  heathen  world; 
if  we  except  the  mission  of  Peter  to  the  Roman  cen- 
turion, and  of  Philip  to  the  Ethiopian  eunuch.  From 
a  remark  in  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter  it  has  been 
inferred,  that  he  preached  the  gospel  to  the  Jews 
eastward  as  far  as  Babylon;  and  from  the  super- 
scription to  the  same  Epistle  it  has  been  supposed, 
that  his  labors  may  have  extended  into  Asia  Minor. 
The  zealous  efforts  of  the  Judaizers  at  Corinth  suf- 
fice to  account  for  the  party  formed  in  that  church 
bearing  Peter's   name,  without  supposing  that  he 


THE  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS.  45 

was  ever  there.  The  evidence  that  Peter  was  never 
at  Rome,  preponderates  over  the  evidence  that  he 
was.  The  reference  in  the  Apocalypse  to  the  seven 
churches  of  Asia  gives  support  to  the  early  tradi- 
tion, that  the  Apostle  John  resided  among  them  in 
his  old  age.  Little  credit  is  given,  however,  by  the 
best  ecclesiastical  historians,  to  the  uninspired  ac- 
counts of  the  missions  of  the  twelve  apostles  into 
distant  regions  of  the  unevangelized  world,  or  to  the 
stories  of  the  martyrdom  of  any  of  them,  except 
Peter,  Paul,  and  James. 

Of  course  in  treating  of  the  missions  to  the 
heathen  after  the  year  50,  our  chief  attention  must 
be  given  to  the  Apostle  Paul  and  his  immediate 
associates.  What  I  have  to  say  concerning  his  mis- 
sion, will  be  under  distinct  heads. 

1.  The  Apostle  Paul  claimed  to  sustain  a  very 
high  and  intimate  relation  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  the 
foundation  doubtless  of  his  great  courage  and 
spiritual  strength.  It  was  nothing  less  than  that 
he  was  Christ's  ambassador,  authorized  to  speak  in 
his  name  when  calling  upon  men  to  be  reconciled 
to  God.i 

2.  We  learn  what  were  the  apostle's  views  of  his 
responsibilities  under  Christ's  commission,  from  the 
following  emphatic  declaration :  "  I  have  planted, 
Apollos  watered,  but  God  gave  the  increase ;  so 
neither  is   he  that  planted   anything,    neither  he 

A  2  Cor.  V.  20. 


46  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

that  watereth,  but  God  that  giveth  the  increase."  ^ 
His  responsibility  was  for  the  faithful  use  of  the 
prescribed  means.  In  the  spiritual  culture  of  the 
world,  it  was  for  planting  and  watering.  Then 
with  respect  to  his  views  as  to  how  far  those  means 
were  to  be  employed,  we  learn  that  opportunity  was 
to  be  given  to  all,  so  far  as  possible,  to  hear  the  gos- 
pel. This  having  been  done  in  Pisidia,  the  sacred 
historian  affirms,  that  "  as  many  as  were  ordained 
to  eternal  life  believed."  ^  It  was  of  course  neces- 
sary for  them  to  have  opportunity  to  hear  the  gospel 
in  order  that  they  might  believe,  and  herein  lay  the 
duty  of  the  apostle  and  his  fellow-laborers.  This 
general  publication  of  the  gospel,  with  the  gathering 
of  the  converts  into  churches  (of  which  I  shall 
speak  under  the  next  head),  illustrates  St.  Paul's 
understanding  of  the  import  and  obligation  of 
Christ's  command. 

3.  The  kind  of  instrumentality,  on  which  the 
apostle  depended  for  success  in  his  mission,  clearly 
appears  in  his  description  of  his  ministrations  at 
Corinth.  He  says,  that  when  he  came  from  Athens 
to  Corinth,  there  to  declare  the  testimony  of  God,  it 
was  not  with  any  surpassing  skill  of  eloquence,  or 
philosophy.  For  it  was  no  earthly  knowledge,  which 
he  desired  to  display  among  them,  but  the  knowl- 
edge of  Jesus  Christ  alone,  and  him  crucified.  And 
in  proclaiming  this  message,  he  had  not  used  the 

1  1  Cor.  iii.  6,  7.  2  ^cts  xiii.  48. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS.  47 

persuasive  arguments  of  human  wisdom,  but  set 
forth  the  proofs  of  the  might  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
so  that  their  faith  might  not  rest  on  the  wisdom  of 
men,  but  on  the  power  of  God.^ 

Such  was  the  eminently  spiritual  nature  of  the 
instrumentality  employed  by  the  apostle,  in  his  per- 
sonal ministry  among  the  Gentiles. 

But  his  stay  in  most  places  was  generally  and 
necessarily  short.  At  Corinth  it  was  indeed  ex- 
tended to  nearly  two  years,  and  at  Ephesus  to  nearly 
three.  But  in  most  places  he  could  have  spent  only 
a  few  weeks,  or  months,  though  he  may  often  have 
left  behind  him  Silas,  Timothy,  or  Titus,  "  to  set 
in  order  the  things  which  were  wanting." 

His  grand  means,  as  a  missionary,  was  the  gather- 
ing and  forming  of  local  churches.  These  appear 
to  have  been  formed  wherever  there  was  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  converts,  each  with  its  own  pres- 
byters, to  whom  must  have  been  committed  the  pas- 
toral oversight  of  the  church,  whatever  may  have 
been  their  other  duties.  In  every  church  there 
appears  to  have  been  more  than  one,  —  an  idea 
apparentl)^  borrowed  from  the  Jewish  synagogue, 
—  and  thus  was  formed  the  early  pastorate.  Such 
would  seem  to  have  been  his  practice ;  for  it  is  ex- 
pressly declared  that,  in  his  first  recorded  mission- 
ary tour,  presbyters  were  ordained  in  every  church  ; 
and  in  the  great  island  of  Crete,  where  he  had  not 

1  Life  of  St.  Paul,  vol.  ii.  p.  36  ;  1  Cor.  ii.  1-5. 


48  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

time  to  do  it  himself,  he  left  Titus,  and  required  him 
to  ordain  them  in  every  city.^ 

Such  was  the  apostle's  custom.  He  thus  in  each 
place  put  in  requisition  the  power  of  association, 
organization,  combination,  of  a  self-governed  Chris- 
tian community ;  and  the  churches  must  necessarily 
have  been  self-supporting.  They  were  formed  for 
standing  without  foreign  aid.  And  that  they  pos- 
sessed a  singular  vitality,  that  they  were  self-propa- 
gating, as  well  as  self-governing  and  self-supporting, 
is  evident  from  the  tenor  of  the  Epistles  addressed 
to  them  by  their  founder.  Indeed,  Christian 
churches  are  among  the  most  vital  of  organiza- 
tions. They  are  spiritual  agencies,  deriving  their 
nature  and  motive  power  from  the  spiritual  world. 
They  are  among  the  most  indestructible  of  agencies. 
When  the  apostle  had  fully  organized  a  church,  he 
boldly  left  it.  If  he  could,  he  visited  it,  and  he 
wrote  to  it.  To  the  larger  churches,  as  I  believe, 
he  wrote  repeatedly.  How  else  could  he  have 
"  daily  "  exercised,  as  he  claims  to  have  done, 
"  the  care  of  all  the  churches  ?  "  ^  Looking  at 
the  subject  in  the  light  of  experience,  and  at  the 
Apostle  Paul  as  a  man,  with  eminent  epistolary  pow- 
ers, and  freely  acting  out  his  nature,  I  come  to  no 
other  conclusion,  than  that  he  wrote  many  letters  ; 
though  Divine  Providence  was  pleased  to  allow  only 
certain  of  them  to  come  down  to  us.     Perhaps  St. 

1  Titus  i.  5.  2  2  Cor.  xi.  28. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS.  49 

Paul's  short  Epistles  to  Timothy,  Titus,  aud  Phile- 
mon, and  St.  John's  to  "  the  Elect  Lady,"*  and  "  the 
well-beloved  Gaius,"  are  specimens  of  their  ordinary 
missionary  correspondence.  Added  to  all,  was  a 
constant  habit  of  commending  his  churches  to  God 
in  his  prayers.  It  appears  to  have  been  a  settled 
point  with  him,  that  a  church  once  fairly  planted 
and  organized,  with  a  proper  arrangement  for  the 
pastoral  care,  might  be  safely  left  to  itself,  under  the 
supervising  grace  of  God.  This,  as  will  readily  be 
seen,  is  a  point  of  vital  importance  in  the  mission- 
ary work.  Had  not  the  apostolic  idea  of  self-gov- 
erning, self-supporting,  self-propagating  churches 
dropped  out  of  the  Christian  mind  so  soon  after 
the  age  of  the  apostles,  not  to  be  fully  regained 
until  modern  times,  how  very  different  had  been 
the  history  of  Christendom,  and  of  the  world  ! 

4.  The  apostolic  missions  belonging  to  a  remote 
antiquity,  and  to  an  age  of  miracles  and  inspiration, 
we  almost  instinctively  clothe  the  apostles,  in  our 
conceptions  of  them,  with  somewhat  of  the  super- 
natural, or  at  least  with  the  extraordinary.  Let  us 
then  briefly  consider  the  manner  in  which  they  must 
have  appeared  to  their  contemporaries. 

For  some  years  the  name  of  Paul  is  mentioned  in 
the  Acts  after  that  of  his  senior,  Barnabas.  The 
bold,  dashing  persecutor  must  have  been  singularly 
transformed  by  his  conversion.  He  is  modest  and 
retiring ;  and,  until  he  entered  fully  upon  the  great 


60  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  ' 

purpose  of  his  life,  was  probably  regarded  as  no 
more  than  a  zealous,  eloquent,  promising  young 
preacher,  and,  by  the  Judaizing  Christians,  as  of 
decidedly  radical  tendencies.  By  many  of  the  Jew- 
ish converts,  if  not  for  a  time  even  by  some  of  the 
apostles,  he  was  looked  upon  with  more  or  less  of 
distrust.  In  his  last  ten  or  twelve  years,  he  may  be 
supposed  to  have  moved  among  the  churches  he  had 
gathered  from  the  Gentiles  much  as  Wesley  did 
among  the  churches  of  his  connection ;  and  some- 
times —  as  at  Ephesus,  where  his  miraculous  pow- 
ers were  marvelously  exercised  —  the  enthusiasm 
he  awakened  may  have  more  resembled  that  which 
attended  the  apostolic  Whitfield.^  His  miraculous 
powers  were  of  course  less  appreciated  in  that  age, 
than  such  powers  would  be  in  our  own.  Uncon- 
verted Jews  and  heathens  did  not  at  all  recognize 
the  signs  of  his  apostleship,  and  they  generally 
looked  upon  him  with  aversion.  In  short,  I  sup- 
pose that  the  first  Christian  missionaries  to  the 
heathen  were  regarded  very  much  as  Christian  mis- 
sionaries are  now  ;  and  that  even  the  apostles,  beyond 
a  limited  circle,  inspired  but  little  of  the  reverence 
which  we  so  justly  award  to  them. 

5.  It  is  interesting  to  inquire  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  the  apostles  and  their  missionary  associates 
were  supported  in  their  travels  and  labors.  The 
information  we  have  on  this  subject  is  mostly  inci- 

1  Actsxix.  11,  12. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS.  51 

dental.  Their  voyages  in  ships  owned  by  heathen, 
their  food  and  clothing,  the  animals  on  which  they 
rode,  —  how  were  these  and  other  expenses  met  dur- 
ing St.  Paul's  long  and  active  career  ?  No  mission- 
ary society  existed,  to  raise  and  remit  funds.  The 
churches  of  Judea  were  so  poor,  that  they  looked  for 
relief  in  their  poverty  to  churches  gathered  among 
the  heathen.  The  apostle,  in  his  letters,  insists 
upon  a  principle,  which  he  says  was  propounded  by 
the  Lord ;  ''that  they  who  preach  the  gospel  should 
live  by  the  gospel ;  "  and  he  intimates  that  Peter  and 
the  other  apostles  acted  on  this  principle  in  their 
mission  to  the  Jews.  But  it  was  among  the  charac- 
teristics of  this  wonderful  man,  that  he,  in  his  mis- 
sion to  the  Gentiles,  declined  doing  so,  and  preferred 
laboring  with  his  own  hands  to  being  dependent  on 
his  converts.  He  also  intimated,  that  the  other 
apostles  having  their  field  of  labor  especially  among 
the  Jews,  and  so  being  differently  situated  from  him- 
self, and  more  at  home,  had  wives,  who  travelled 
with  them  ;  and  he  claimed  the  right  to  do  the  same 
thing.  Nevertheless,  in  his  peculiar  circumstances 
and  relations,  he  had  not  used  that  liberty,  lest  he 
"  should  hinder  the  gospel  of  Christ."  ^  He  doubt- 
less refers  to  his  itinerant  life,  and  to  the  necessity 
of  not  deriving  his  support  from  churches  gathered 
among  the  heathen.  At  Ephesus  he  claims  to  have 
labored  not  only  for  his  own  support,  but  also  for  the 
support  of  his  assistants.^ 

1  1  Cor.  ix.  4.  5,  14.  '^  Acts  xx.  34. 


62  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

St.  Paul's  liberal  education,  and  his  high  social 
position  in  early  life,  warrant  the  supposition  that 
he  inherited  property  to  some  extent ;  and  this  was 
doubtless  used  by  him  in  defraying  his  early  expenses. 
Then  Barnabas,  a  native  of  Cyprus,  who  had  contrib- 
uted largely  to  the  church-fund  at  Jerusalem,  was 
probably  able  to  defray  the  united  cost  of  their  first 
mission.  The  history  states,  that  when  the  Apostle 
Paul  started  from  Antioch,  on  his  second  grand  mis- 
sionary tour,  the  church  of  that  city  had  made  such 
progress  in  the  missionary  spirit,  that  they  "  recom- 
mended him  unto  the  grace  of  God."  ^  Having  done 
so  much,  they  could  hardly  have  sent  him  away 
empty.  But  whatever  were  his  means,  they  seem  to 
have  been  exhausted  soon  after  entering  Europe. 
At  Philippi,  he  and  his  companions  enjoyed  the  hos- 
pitality of  that  noble  woman,  Lydia.^  At  Thessa- 
lonica,  for  some  unexplained  reason,  he  declined  re- 
ceiving anything  from  his  converts  there,  and  labored 
"  night  and  day,"  because,  as  he  says,  he  would  not 
be  chargeable  to  them  ;  ^  while,  at  the  same  time,  he 
allowed  the  Philippian  church  to  supply  his  necessi- 
ties. This  that  church  did  "  once  and  again,"  while 
he  was  at  Thessalonica ;  and  afterwards  at  Corinth ; 
and  again,  when  he  was  a  prisoner  at  Rome.*  At 
Athens,  after  his  speech  on  Mars'  Hill,  he  would  be 
joyfully  entertained  by  his  patrician  convert,  Diony- 

1  Acts  XV.  40.  2  ^ctg  xvi.  15. 

»  Thess.  ii.  9.  *  PhU.  ii.  25 ;  iv.  15,  16 ;  2  Cor.  xi.  9. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS.  53 

sius  the  Areopagite ;  who,  I  cannot  doubt,  after- 
wards took  pleasure  in  seeing  him  over  the  Isthmus 
to  Corinth.  During  the  year  and  a  half  of  his  abode 
in  Corinth,  he  declares  to  the  church  in  that  city, 
that  he  "  was  chargeable  to  no  man  ;  "  for  what  was 
lacking  to  him  the  messengers  from  the  distant 
Philippian  church  supplied,  and  he  meant  to  keep 
himself  from  being  burdensome  to  them.  It  must 
have  been  a  matter  of  notoriety  at  Corinth,  that  he 
labored  for  his  own  support  in  the  tent-factory  of 
Aquila  and  Priscilla,  having  learned  the  craft  at 
Tarsus,  as  a  part  of  his  Jewish  education  ;  though  I 
imagine  that  one  object  he  had  in  view,  both  there 
and  at  Ephesus,  was  to  set  an  example  of  self-sup- 
port to  the  native  presbyters. 

It  is  due,  however,  to  the  primitive  Gentile 
churches  to  presume,  that  the  Christian  community, 
which  was  growing  up  under  the  self-denying  labors 
of  this  holy  apostle,  became  at  length  alive  to  the 
duty  and  privilege  of  carefully  looking  after  his 
wants ;  and  that  while,  for  special  reasons  in  the 
infancy  of  the  churches,  he  refused  to  receive  aid 
from  certain  of  them,  he  was  not  ordinarily  accus- 
tomed to  refuse  the  hospitalities  and  kindly  prof- 
fered benefactions  of  personal  friends,  as  he  passed 
from  place  to  place.  That  love,  which  hung  on  his 
lips  at  Troas  "  even  till  break  of  day ; "  which  re- 
ceived him  in  Galatia  "  as  an  angel  of  God,  as  Jesus 
Christ ; "  which  fell  weeping  on  his  neck  at  Miletus, 


54  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

because  they  should  see  his  face  no  more ;  and  which 
wept  at  Cesarea  over  his  approaching  sufferings  so 
as  to  break  his  heart,  —  would  not  have  permitted 
him  to  want,  when  there  was  the  power  to  prevent  it. 

Yet  there  is  a  passage  in  the  Apostle  John's  brief 
letter  to  the  "  well-beloved  Gains,"  which  seems  to 
intimate  the  general  usage,  not  only  of  St.  Paul, 
but  also  of  his  associates,  not  to  depend  for  their 
support  on  mission  churches  among  the  Gentiles. 
St.  John  expressly  declares,  that,  for  Christ's  sake, 
"they  went  forth,  taking  nothing  from  the  Gen- 
tiles." 1 

6.  It  is  important,  in  a  missionary  point  of  view, 
to  observe  what  classes  of  persons  were  gathered 
into  the  apostolic  churches.  Our  Saviour  evidently 
sought,  in  his  private  instructions,  to  guard  his  dis- 
ciples against  expecting  great  success  among  the 
rich  and  noble  of  the  earth.  The  foundations  of  his 
spiritual  kingdom  were  not  to  be  laid  among  such. 
"  Verily  I  say  unto  you,"  was  his  emphatic  declara- 
tion, "  that  a  rich  man  shall  hardly  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  That  this  declaration  made  a 
strong  impression  at  the  time,  is  evident  from  its 
being  recorded,  with  the  addition  of  its  more  em- 
phatic reduplication  by  three  of  the  Evangelists.^ 
There  are  indeed  names  of  rich  and  noble  converts 
on  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament ;  but  the  great 

1  3  John  V.  7.     See  2  Cor.  xii.  13. 

2  Matt.  xix.  23,  24 ;  Mark  x.  23-27  ;  Luke  xviii.  24-27. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS.  55 

body  was  from  the  middle  and  poorer  classes.  It 
was  eminently  so  among  the  Greeks  at  Corinth. 
"  Ye  see  your  calling,  brethren,"  the  apostle  wrote 
to  them,  "how  that  not  many  wise  men  after  the 
flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble,  are  called ; 
but  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  world, 
to  confound  the  wise ;  and  God  hath  chosen  the  weak 
things  of  the  world,  to  confound  the  things  that  are 
mighty ;  and  base  things  of  the  world,  and  things 
which  are  despised,  hath  God  chosen,  yea,  and  things 
w  hich  are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  things  which  are ; 
that  no  flesh  should  glory  in  his  presence."  ^  One 
of  the  ancient  historians  of  the  church,^  speaking 
of  the  early  Christians,  says,  —  "  They  were  neither 
rich  nor  learned,  but  workers  in  brass,  builders, 
house-slaves,  laborers,  tree-fellers,  and  women."  In 
an  age  of  the  world  when  wealth  and  power  w^ere 
never  held  in  higher  estimation,  the  leaven  of  the 
gospel  was  cast  into  the  lower  and  middle  strata  of 
society,  and  worked  upwards,  till  the  w^hole  was 
leavened.     It  is  interesting  to  notice,  — 

7.  That  the  influence  of  pious  females  is  a  con- 
spicuous fact  in  the  Gospels,  the  Acts,  and  the  Epis- 
tles. There  is  no  need  that  I  illustrate  this.  Pious 
women,  as  is  well  known,  have  a  noble  record  in  the 
missionary  life  of  the  great  apostle,  as  they  also 
have  in  that  of  our  blessed  Lord. 

8.  The  tardy   development   of  the   Ecclesia,   the 

1  1  Cor.  i.  26-29.  '^  Theodorct,  a.  d.  420. 


56  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

cliurch,  in  the  apostolic  age,  has  been  already  illus- 
trated. Not  till  after  nearly  a  score  of  years  was  it 
fully  settled,  that  Gentile  churches  should  not  be 
required  to  conform  to  Jewish  customs  and  preju- 
dices. While  we  nowhere  find  distinct  traces  in  the 
New  Testament  of  the  associated,  organized  denomi- 
nationalism  of  our  times,  it  is  not  on  that  account 
to  be  condemned,  when  not  opposed  to  the  spirit  of 
the  gospel.  It  is  obvious,  that  neither  Presbyteries, 
Consociations,  Associations,  or  Conferences  could  be 
formed,  until  there  were  churches  enough  with  which 
to  form  them,  churches  sufficiently  trained  and  near 
together  to  be  advantageously  associated.  It  may 
be  that  the  sacred  history  closed  before  there  was 
a  full  ecclesiastical  development  in  any  direction. ^ 
But  the  local  church  in  its  principles  and  outline  is 
there;  and  modern  missionaries  from  the  several 
evangelical  communities  are  at  no  loss  for  an  exam- 
ple as  regards  such  churches. 

1  "  Neither  in  the  New  Testament,  nor  in  any  ancient  document 
whatever,  do  we  find  anything  recorded,  from  whence  it  might  he  in- 
ferred, that  any  of  the  minor  churches  were  at  all  dependent  on,  or 
looked  up  for  direction  to  those  of  greater  magnitude  or  consequence ; 
on  the  contrary,  several  things  occurred  therein,  which  put  it  out  of  all 
douht  that  every  one  of  them  enjoyed  the  same  rights,  and  was  con- 
sidered as  being  on  a  footing  of  the  most  perfect  equality  with  the  rest. 
Indeed  it  cannot,  —  I  will  not  say  be  proved,  but  even  be  made  to 
appear  probable,  from  any  estimony  divine  or  human,  —  that  in  this 
age  it  was  the  practice  for  several  churches  to  enter  into  and  maintain 
amongst  themselves  that  sort  of  association,  which  afterwards  came  to 
subsist  amongst  the  churches  of  almost  every  province."  —  Mosheim, 
Commentaries,  vol.  i.  p.  196. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS.  67 

It  is  more  to  my  purpose  to  inquire  into  the 
character  of  the  apostolic  churches,  than  into  their 
method  of  organization  and  government.  The  com- 
mon opinion,  that  those  churches  excelled  the 
churches  of  modern  times  in  their  Christian  devel- 
opment, is  not  sustained  by  a  thoughtful  reading  of 
the  inspired  documents,  nor  could  such  a  thing  be 
reasonably  expected.  The  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
in  its  permanent  results  on  the  hearts  and  minds 
and  lives  of  men,  appears  not  to  have  differed  mate- 
rially then,  from  what  it  is  in  our  day.  St.  Paul 
seems  to  have  had  as  many  and  as  great  trials  with 
his  mission  churches,  as  do  modern  missionaries 
with  theirs.  In  the  church  of  Corinth,  on  which 
the  apostle  had  bestowed  so  much  labor,  he  had  to 
lament  the  many  carried  away  by  false  teachers,  dis- 
orders in  their  worship,  irregularities  at  the  Lord's 
Supper,  neglect  of  discipline,  party  divisions,  litiga- 
tions, "  debates,  envyings,  wraths,  strifes,  backbit- 
ings."  1  And  how  soon  were  the  Galatians  seduced 
from  their  loyalty  to  the  truth,  even  to  what  seemed 
"  another  gospel ; "  so  that  the  apostle  feared  he 
had  labored  among  them  in  vain.^  He  thought  it 
needful  to  exhort  the  Ephesian  church  to  put  away 
lying,  to  steal  no  more,  and  to  have  no  more  to  do 
with  fornication  and  coveteousness.^  He  also  ex- 
horts the  Colossians  not  to  lie  one  to  another ;  *  and 

1  2  Cor.  xii.  20.  2  Qal.  i.  6 ;  iv.  11. 

8  Eph.  iv.  25,  28  ;  V.  3.  *  Col.  iii.  9. 


58  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

the  Thessalonians  to  withdraw  from  such  of  their 
brethren  as  walked  disorderly .^  He  cautions  Timo- 
thy against  fables,  endless  genealogies,  and  profane 
and  vain  babblings,  as  if  such  were  prevalent  in 
some  of  the  churches ;  and  speaks  of  preachers  who, 
after  making  shipwreck  of  their  faith,  added  blas- 
phemies to  their  heresies.^  And  the  Apostle  John 
declares,  somewhat  later,  that  many  "  antichrists  " 
had  gone  out  from  the  church.^ 

As  there  were  great  defects,  so  there  were  also 
great  excellences  coexisting  in  the  churches  gath- 
ered by  the  apostles.  At  the  very  time  of  St.  Paul's 
censures  of  the  Corinthians,  he  declares  that  church 
to  be  "  enriched  by  Jesus  Christ  in  all  utterance  and 
in  all  knowledge,"  so  that  it  came  behind  in  no  gift.^ 
And  while  he  so  seriously  cautions  the  Ephesians,  he 
ceases  not  to  give  thanks  for  "their  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  their  love  unto  all  the  saints."  ^  He 
thanked  God  upon  every  remembrance  of  the  Philip- 
pians ;  ^  and  when  he  wrote  to  the  Colossians,  he 
gave  thanks  for  their  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  their 
love  to  all  the  saints.^  And  how  abundant  his  com- 
mendations of  the  Thessalonians,  whom  he  declares 
to  be  "  ensamples  to  all  that  believe  in  Macedonia 
and  Achaia."  ^ 

1  2  Thess.  iii.  6.  2  j  tjjj^  j  jg^  gO  ;  vi.  3-5. 

8  1  John  ii.  18,  19.  *  1  Cor.  i.  5,  7. 

6  Eph.  i.  15,  16.  6  Phil.  i.  3. 

T  Col.  i.  3,  4.  »  1  Thess.  i.  3,  7. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS.  59 

We  come  to  this  result  as  to  the  character  of  the 
apostolic  churches :  that  while  the  primitive  con- 
verts were  remarkable,  as  a  class,  for  the  high  tone 
of  their  religious  feelings,  and  the  simplicity  and 
strength  of  their  faith,  they  were  deficient  in  a  clear, 
practical  apprehension  of  the  ethical  code  of  the  gos- 
pel. Considering  all  things,  this  was  not  strange ; 
and  we  should  always  remember  this,  when  we  con- 
sider the  character  of  modern  mission  churches. 

9.  Finally,  I  must  make  some  estimate  of  the 
amount  of  success,  on  the  whole,  which  resulted 
from  the  apostolic  missions ;  though  the  materials 
for  this  are  imperfect,  owing  to  the  brevity  of  the 
sacred  narrative. 

The  Jews  had  synagogues,  the  pagans  had  tem- 
ples ;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  church- 
buildings  were  erected  anywhere  in  connection  with 
the  apostolic  missions.  The  religious  assemblies 
were  private.  No  separate  and  distinguished  edi- 
fice attracted  attention ;  and  ecclesiastical  history 
affirms,  that  there  were  no  Christian  houses  of  wor- 
ship erected  before  the  third  century.^ 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Apostle 
Paul  was  privileged  to  see  any  one  district,  or  even 
any  one  city,  so  much  as  nominally  Christianized. 
Antioch  was  not  for  at  least  two  centuries.  The 
people  in  Lesser  Asia,  both  Jews  and  Greeks,  are 
said  all  to  have  heard  the  word  of  the  Lord  Jesus ; 
1  Neander,  vol.  i.  p.  291 ;  Mosheim,  vol.  i.  p.  134. 


GO  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

but  though  the  worship  of  Diana  is  declared  to  have 
suffered  much  decline  in  consequence,  the  mob  at 
Ephesus  drove  the  apostle  away  at  last,  and  showed 
that  paganism  was  still  the  ascendant  power. 

The  most  that  can  be  said  —  and  that  is  saying 
very  much  —  is  that  self-supporting,  self-governing, 
and  self-propagating  churches  had  been  planted  in 
all  the  principal  cities  of  the  Roman  Empire ;  as  far 
West,  certainly,  as  Rome,  and  as  far  East  as  Meso- 
potamia ;  each  under  the  instruction  and  care  of  its 
own  presbyters.  Fabricius  has  collected  from  the 
New  Testament  the  names  of  more  than  fifty  places, 
which  must  have  had  churches.^  Doubtless  the 
whole  number  was  greater.  Judea,  Samaria,  Syria, 
Asia  Minor,  Macedonia,  Greece  and  its  Islands,  and 
perhaps  a  portion  of  Western  Italy,  all  had  churches. 
The  great  apostle  planted  them  "from  Jerusalem 
round  about  unto  Illyricum." 

These  churches  were  lights  shining  amid  a  gen- 
eral and  deep  spiritual  gloom.  We  may  compare 
the  whole  process  to  the  lighting  up  of  some  great 
metropolis.  Night  is  not  thereby  converted  into 
day.  A  distant  observer  would  not  perceive  that 
any  impression  was  made  upon  the  darkness.  Yet 
the  wayfarer  in  the  street,  or  crossing  a  public 
square,  would  find  his  path  illuminated,  and  go  on 
his  way  rejoicing.^    For.  each  one  of  those  churches, 

1  Salutaris  Imx  Evangdii,  etc.,  p.  83. 

^  This  illustration  first  occurred  to  me  at  Calcutta,  while  looking  out 


THE  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS.  61 

scattered  over  the  empire,  was  a  growing  influence, 
and  growing  the  more  rapidly  for  the  frequent  and 
cruel  persecutions,  and  was  constantly  extending  its 
illumination;  until,  through  the  divine  blessing, 
under  the  combined  influence  of  the  whole,  the 
Roman  Empire  bowed  to  the  supremacy  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  assumed  the  Christian  name. 

Such  were  the  apostolic  missions.  Such  were  the 
efforts  made  for  propagating  the  gospel  among  the 
heathen  by  missionaries  under  a  special  divine  guid- 
ance. It  was  by  gathering  converts  into  churches 
at  the  centres  of  influence,  and  putting  them  under 
native  pastoral  inspection  and  care.  The  means 
employed  were  spiritual ;  namely,  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  The  power  relied  upon  for  giving  efficacy 
to  these  means  was  divine;  namely,  the  promised 
aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  main  success  was  among 
the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  society;  and  the 
responsibilities  for  self-government,  self-support,  and 
self-propagation  were  thrown  at  once  upon  the  sev- 
eral churches. 

Another  chapter  will  show  how  far  the  apostolic 
missions  to  the  heathen  reappear  in  the  missions  of 
the  present  day. 

one  dark  night  upon  the  large,  gas-lighted  public  square.  I  thought, 
this  dark  yet  illuminated  space  is  India,  and  the  lights  are  her  mis- 
sions. 


CHAPTER    V. 

IRISH   MISSIONS   IN   THE   EARLY  AGES. 

Nestorian  Missions.  —  Irish  Missions.  —  The  Present  and  Past  of  Ire- 
land contrasted.  —  Hume's  Statement.  —  D'Aubigne's.  —  McLanch- 
lan's.  —  Ireland  distinguished  for  its  Learning,  Piety,  and  Missions. 
A  Refuge  for  the  Church. — Its  Situation  favorable.  —  Early  His- 
tory of  Patrick.  —  A  True  Missionary.  —  Not  connected  with  Rome. 
His  Mission  to  Ireland.  —  Followed  by  a  Native  Ministry. — Prev- 
alence of  Religion.  —  Monasteries  and  Schools.  — Why  not  spoken 
of  as  a  "  Culdee  "  Mission. — Columba's  Mission.  —  Monastery 
of  lona.  —  Mission  of  Columbanus.  —  His  Character.  —  Among 
the  Pagans  o^Burgundy.  —  His  Schools  and  Co-laborers,  —  Teach- 
ings. —  Banishment,  and  Subsequent  History.  —  Callus,  the  Apostle 
of  Switzerland.  —  Missionaries  from  Ireland.  —  Extent  and  Nature 
of  their  Labors. — Defects  in  their  Missions.  —  lona. — Irish  Mis- 
sions connected  with  the  Reformation  of  Luther.  —  Melancholy 
Decline.  —  Reflections  and  Inferences. 

The  most  remarkable  of  the  missions  in  the  ages 
subsequent  to  the  apostles,  was  doubtless  that  of  the 
Nestorians  in  Central  and  Eastern  Asia,  begun  in 
the  fourth  century,  and  extending  onward  —  it 
may  be  with  prolonged  interruptions  —  through  the 
greater  part  of  a  thousand  years.  But  the  missions 
most  interesting  to  us,  are  those  which  went  forth 
from  Ireland  to  Continental  Europe,  in  the  sixth 
and  seventh  centuries.     So  little  were  they  known 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  63 

to  me  when  I  began  to  investigate  their  history, 
that  I  pursued  the  investigation  with  increasing 
wonder  and  delight. 

In  a  religious  point  of  view,  Ireland  of  the  pres- 
ent day  is  painfully  contrasted  with  Ireland  as  it  was 
a  thousand  years  ago.  Yet  one  would  scarcely  think 
so,  on  reading  what  Hume  says  of  it,  previous  to  its 
conquest  by  Henry  II.  in  the  year  1172. 

"  The  Irish,"  he  says,  "  from  the  beginning  of 
time,  had  been  buried  in  the  most  profound  bar- 
barism and  ignorance ;  and  as  they  were  never  con- 
quered, or  even  invaded  by  the  Romans,  from  whom 
all  the  Western  world  derived  its  civility,  they  con- 
tinued still  in  the  most  rude  state  of  society,  and 
were  distinguished  by  those  vices  alone,  to  which 
human  nature,  not  tamed  by  education  or  restrained 
by  laws,  is  forever  subject."  ^  He  adds,  indeed,  that 
"the  Irish  had,  by  precedent  missions  from  the 
Britons,  been  imperfectly  converted  to  Christianity ; 
and,  what  the  Pope  regarded  as  the  surest  mark  of 
their  imperfect  conversion,  they  followed  the  doc- 
trines of  their  first  teachers,  and  had  never  acknowl- 
edged any  subjection  to  the  See  of  Rome." 

How  remote  the  first  of  these  extracts  is  from 
historic  truth,  in  respect  to  Ireland  before  its  sub- 
jection to  the  Pope  of  Rome,  will  appear  as  we  pro- 
ceed. 

But  Ireland  has  suffered  more  from  the  errors  of 

1  Hume's  History  of  England,  vol.  i.  p.  328. 


64  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

ecclesiastical  historians,  than  from  those  of  mere 
secular  writers.  The  excellent  D'Aubigne,  in  his 
history  of  the  "  Reformation  in  England,"  misled 
by  his  authorities,  has  done  much  injustice  to  the 
ancient  Irish  Christians ;  and  Irish  authors  very  prop- 
erly take  exception  to  his  statement  concerning  the 
propagation  of  the  gospel  on  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope. "  The  missionary  bishops  of  Britain"  he 
says,  "  traversed  the  low  countries,  Gaul,  Switzer- 
land, Germany,  and  even  Italy Columbanus 

(whom  we  must  not  confound  with  Coluraba),  feeling 
in  his  heart  the  burning  of  the  fire  which  the  Lord 
had  kindled  upon  earth,  quitted  Bangor  in  590,  with 
twelve  other  missionaries,  and  carried  the  gospel  to 

the   Burgundians,  Franks,  and  Swiss Thus 

was  Britain  faithful  in  planting  the  standard  of 
Christ  in  the  heart  of  Europe."  Again :  "  The 
British  Church,  which,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
seventh  century,  carried  faith  and  civilization  into 
Burgundy,  the  Vosges  mountains,  and  Switzerland, 
might  well  have  spread  them  both  over  Britain." 
Once  more :  "  At  that  time  there  existed  at  Bangor, 
in  North  Wales,  a  large  Christian  society,  amount- 
ing to  nearly  three  thousand  individuals,  collected 
together  to  work  with  their  own  hands,  to  study, 
and  to  pray,  and  from  whose  bosoms  numerous  mis- 
sionaries (Columbanus  was  among  the  number)  had 
from  time  to  time  gone  forth."  ^ 

1  History  of  the  Reformation,  vol.  v.  pp.  29,  34. 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS  Qb 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  honor  of  one  of  the  most 
protracted,  influential,  and  noble  missions  subse- 
quent to  the  apostolic  age,  which  belonged  chiefly  to 
Ireland,  is  here  given  to  Britain. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  McLauchlan,  a  recent  historian 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  has  fallen  into  a  similar 
error.  He  assumes  (what  to  a  certain  extent  is 
true)  that  the  ancient  Scots,  emigrating  from  Ire- 
land, inhabited  a  part  of  Albania  (the  present  Scot- 
land), as  well  as  Ireland.  He  also  assumes,  that  the 
monastery  of  lona  was  a  Scottish  institution ;  and 
calling  the  missions  Scottish  missions,  and  rarely, 
if  ever,  Irish,  he  leaves  an  impression  very  like  to 
that  of  D'Aubigne.  His  unqualified  use  of  the  word 
"  Scottish  "  is  somewhat  remarkable ;  and  the  Irish 
biographer  of  Archbishop  Usher  charges  the  Scot- 
tish writers  with  claiming,  without  hesitation,  for 
their  country  everything  that  is  said  of  "  Scotia," 
utterly  disregarding  the  teaching  of  all  the  ancient 
historians.^ 

I  shall  not  find  it  difficult  to  show,  that  the  his- 
torians above  mentioned  all  wrote  under  a  misap- 
prehension. 

1  Usher's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  144.  It  is  due  to  Mr.  McLauchlan  to  say, 
that  his  error  originated  in  no  desire  to  gain  authority  for  his  own  sys- 
tem of  church  i^olity ;  for  he  cordially  acknowledges,  that  it  would  he 
vain  to  look  among  the  establishments  in  theeai-ly  "  Scottish  Church/* 
for  anything  like  what  is  called  a  Presbyterian  organization.  Early 
Scottish  Church,  pp.  171,  172. 
5 


Q6  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

D'Aubigue  quotes  the  following  from  the  cele- 
brated Al^uin,  of  the  court  of  Charlemagne,  in  sup- 
port of  his  first  assertion :  "  Antiquo  tempore  doc- 
tissimi  solehant  magistri  de  Hibernia  Britanniam, 
Galliam,  Italiam  venire,  et  multos  per  ecclesias 
Christi  fecisse  profectus."  Now  the  declaration 
here  is,  that  the  most  learned  teachers  in  ancient 
times  were  accustomed  to  come  from  Ireland  to  visit 
the  churches  in  Britain,  Gaul,  and  Italy.  Nor  was 
Columbanus  from  Bangor  in  Wales,  as  is  asserted, 
but  ftom  one  of  the  most  renowned  of  the  Irish 
monasteries,  at  Bangor  in  Ireland,  founded  by  the 
Abbot  Comgall,  early  in  the  sixth  century,  and  em- 
bracing at  one  time  a  community  numbering  three 
thousand.^  In  a  life  of  Columbanus,  still  extant  in 
the  Latin  language,  written  in  the  seventh  century 
by  Jonas,  his  contemporary  and  countryman,  his  birth 
is  declared  to  have  been  in  Hibernia.  It  is  added 
that  Ireland  was  "  then  inhabited  by  the  Scots,  who, 
though  without  the  laws  of  other  nations,  yet  in  the 
worthiness  of  the  Christian  faith  exceeded  the  piety 
of  all  other  people."  ^  The  venerable  Bede,  writing 
in  the  eighth  century,  calls  Hibernia  by  the  name  of 
Scotia,  and  the  inhabitants  he  calls  Scots.  And 
Archbishop  Usher  afiirms  that  no  author,  before  the 
eleventh  century,  has  described  Albania  under  the 
name  of  Scotland,  and  that  the   name  of  Ireland 

1  Neander's  Memorials,  p.  434. 

2  Webb's  Annotations  on  D'Aubigne,  p.  41 . 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  67 

until  then  was  Scotia,  and  its  inhabitants  were 
called  Scots.^  The  famous  monastery  of  lona  was 
founded  by  a  native  of  Ireland,  and  was  claimed  as 
an  Irish  institution  by  the  Synod  of  Ulster,  as  late 
as  the  thirteenth  century .^  Neander,  speaking  of 
the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  represents  the  wild 
parts  of  Ireland  as  covered  with  monasteries,  that 
were  distinguished  for  Christian  discipline,  industry, 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  and  such  general 
knowledge  as  could  be  obtained  from  Britain  and 
France.^  Henry,  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  writing  to 
Charles  the  Bald,  about  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
century,  informs  him  that  Ireland,  notwithstanding 
the  dangers  of  the  sea,  was  sending  crowds  of  phi- 
losophers to  their  shores.  Under  the  successors  of 
Charlemagne,  Hibernians  were  extensively  engaged 
in  the  work  of  education  throughout  the  empire,  and 
were  the  chief  Biblical  translators  and  commenta- 
tors of  Europe.  Mosheim,  writing  concerning  the 
ninth  century,  says  of  the  Irish,  that  they  "  were 
lovers  of  learning;  "  and  "  distinguished  themselves 
in  those  times  of  ignorance  by  the  culture  of  the 
sciences  beyond  all  other  European  nations."  He 
adds,  that  "so  early  as  the  eighth  century,  they 
illustrated  the  doctrines  of  religion  by  the  princi- 
ples of  philosophy,"  and  "  were  the  first  teachers  of 

1  Usher's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  144. 

2  Webb's  Annotations,  p.  35. 

8  Neauder's  Memorials,  p.  434. 


68  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

the  scholastic  theology  in  Europe."  ^  Neander,  speak- 
ing of  the  theological  teaching  in  the  ninth  century, 
declares  the  Irish  monasteries  to  have  been  "the 
seat  of  science  and  art,  whence,  and  for  a  long  time 
afterwards,  teachers  in  the  sciences  and  useful  arts 
scattered  themselves  in  all  directions."  He  says, 
moreover,  that  there  issued  from  the  Irish  Church 
"  a  more  original  and  free  development  of  theology, 
than  was  elsewhere  to  be  found,  and  was  thence 
propagated  to  other  lands."  '^ 

These  testimonies  are  applicable  to  Ireland  for  the 
space  of  about  four  centuries,  from  the  fifth  to  the 
ninth,  and  present  us  with  a  very  interesting  view  of 
the  Irish  people.  Ireland  then  served,  under  Divine 
Providence,  as  a  convenient  refuge  for  the  church,  in 
a  very  disordered  and  dangerous  period  of  the  nom- 
inally Christian  world;  being  the  remotest  of  the 
European  islands,  secured  by  distance,  and  by  hav- 
ing England  and  Scotland  as  a  rampart,  from  the  de- 
structive inroads  of  Goths  and  Huns,  and,  for  a  long 
time,  from  those  also  of  the  sea-roving  Northmen. 
For  many  ages  it  was  a  sanctuary  for  Scriptural  in- 
struction and  scholarship,  in  the  intellectual  night 
that  followed  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  It 
was  also  the  source  of  gospel  missions,  which  sowed 
the  seeds  of  the  great  Keformation  in  Germany,  Eng- 

1  Webb's  Annotations,  pp.  40,  141,  142,  148 

2  Quoted  by  Webb,  p.  143. 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  69 

laud,  and  Scotland,  that  came  as  a  blessing  to  the 
world,  eight  or  nine  centuries  afterwards. 

The  gospel  was  planted  in  Ireland  by  a  single 
missionary,  self-moved  —  or  rather  divinely  moved 
—  and  self-supported.  His  historic  name  was  Patrick, 
and  the  Roman  Catholics  (claiming  him,  without 
reason,  as  their  own)  call  him  St.  Patrick.  He  was 
born  about  the  year  410,  and  most  probably  in  some 
part  of  Scotland.  His  parents  were  Christians,  and 
instructed  him  in  the  gospel.  Patrick's  first  visit 
to  the  field  of  his  future  mission  was  in  his  youth,  as 
a  captive  of  pirates,  who  carried  him  away,  with 
many  others,  as  a  prisoner.  Patrick  was  sold  to  a 
chieftain,  who  placed  him  in  charge  of  his  cattle. 
His  own  statement  is,  that  his  heart  was  turned  to 
the  Lord  during  the  hardships  of  his  captivity.  "  I 
prayed  many  times  a  day,"  he  says.  "  The  fear  of 
God  and  love  to  him  were  increasingly  kindled  in 
me.  Faith  grew  in  me,  so  that  in  one  day  I  offered 
a  hundred  prayers,  and  at  night  almost  as  many ; 
and  when  I  passed  the  night  in  the  woods,  or  on 
the  mountains,  I  rose  up  to  pray  in  the  snow,  ice, 
and  rain,  before  daybreak.  Yet  I  felt  no  pain.' 
There  was  no  sluggishness  in  me,  such  as  I  now  find 
in  myself,  for  then  the  spirit  glowed  within  me." 
This  is  extracted  from  what  is  called  the  "Con- 
fession "  of  Patrick,  written  in  his  old  age. 

Some  years  later,  he   was  again  taken  by  the 


70  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

pirates,  but  soou  regained  his  liberty,  and  returned 
home.  His  parents  urged  him  to  remain  with  them ; 
but  he  felt  an  irresistible  call  to  carry  the  gospel  to 
those  among  whom  he  had  passed  his  youth  as  a 
bondman.  "  Many  opposed  my  going,"  he  says  in 
his  "  Confession,"  "  and  said,  behind  my  back, '  Why 
does  this  man  rush  into  danger  among  the  heathen, 
who  do  not  know  the  Lord  ? '  It  was  not  badly  in- 
tended on  their  part;  but  they  could  not  compre- 
hend the  matter  on  account  of  my  uncouth  disposi- 
tion !  Many  gifts  were  offered  me  with  tears,  if  I 
would  remain.  But,  according  to  God's  guidance,  I 
did  not  yield  to  them;  not  by  my  own  power,  it 
was  God  who  conquered  in  me,  and  I  withstood  them 
all ;  so  that  I  went  to  the  people  of  Ireland  to  pub- 
lish the  gospel  to  them,  and  suffered  many  insults 
from  unbelievers,  and  many  persecutions,  even  unto 
bonds,  resigning  my  liberty  for  the  good  of  others. 
And  if  I  am  found  worthy,  I  am  ready  to  give  up  my 
life  with  joy  for  His  name's  sake."  ^ 

In  such  a  spirit  did  this  apostle  to  Ireland  com- 
mence his  mission,  about  the  year  440  ;  not  far  from 
the  time  when  Britain  was  finally  evacuated  by  the 
Romans. 

A  papal  legend  makes  Patrick  to  have  visited 
Rome,  and  to  have  received  his  appointment  as  a 
missionary  from  Pope  Celestine.  This,  though  ap- 
parently credited  by  Mosheim,  is  rejected  by  Neander 

1  Neander's  Memorials^  pp.  426-428. 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  71 

as  incredible.  The  oldest  of  what  profess  to  be  the 
Lives  of  Patrick,  is  believed  to  have  been  written  at 
least  four  hundred  years  after  his  time.  The  one  by 
Joceline,  in  his  "  Acta  Sanctorum  "  (Lives  of  the 
Saints),  dates  as  late  as  the  twelfth  century,  and 
all  are  regarded  as  very  doubtful  authority.  What 
is  commonly  known  as  his  "  Confession "  (already 
quoted)  is  almost  universally  received  as  authentic. 
It  was  written  in  his  old  age.  The  "  Epistola  ad 
Coroticum,"  and  the  hymn  known  as  his  "  Lorica," 
are  regarded  as  his.  Of  high  authority,  as  claiming 
to  be  contemporary  with  him,  or  nearly  so,  is  the 
''  Hymn  of  Sechnal "  or  "  Secundinus,"  and  a  bio- 
graphic poem  in  his  praise,  called  the  "  Hymn  of 
Fiace,"  composed  not  more  than  eighty  years  after 
his  death. ^ 

Patrick  being  acquainted  with  the  language  and 
customs  of  the  Irish  people,  as  a  consequence  of  his 
early  captivity,  gathered  them  about  him  in  large 
assemblies  at  the  beat  of  a  kettle-drum,  and  told  the 
story  of  Christ  so  as  to  move  their  hearts.  Having 
taught  them  to  read,  he  encouraged  the  importation 
of  useful  books  from  England  and  France.  He 
established  cloisters  after  the  fashion  of  the  times, 
which  were  really  missionary  schools,  for  educating 
the  people  in  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel,  and  for 
training  a  native  ministry  and  missionaries  ;  and  he 
claims  to  have  baptized  many  thousands  of  the  peo- 
(Ple. 

I  London  Quarterly  Review,  April,  1866,  p.  252. 


72  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

It  is  perhaps  needful  to  a  just  appreciation  of  the 
case,  that  I  quote  the  discriminating  remarks  of  Dr. 
Todd,  one  of  his  ablest  Protestant  biographers. 
After  stating  that  Patrick  always  addressed  him- 
self, in  the  first  instance,  to  the  kings  or  chieftains, 
Dr.  Todd  says  :  "  The  people  may  not  have  adopted 
the  outward  profession  of  Christianity,  which  was  all 
that,  perhaps,  in  the  first  instance  they  adopted, 
from  any  clear  or  intellectual  appreciation  of  its 
superiority  to  their  former  religion;  but  to  obtain 
from  the  people  even  an  outward  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity was  an  important  step  to  ultimate  success. 
It  secured  toleration,  at  least,  for  Christian  insti- 
tutions. It  enabled  Patrick  to  plant  in  every  tribe 
his  churches,  schools,  and  monasteries.  He  was 
permitted,  without  opposition,  to  establish,  among 
the  half  pagan  inhabitants  of  the  country,  societies 
of  holy  men,  whose  devotion,  usefulness,  and  piety 
soon  produced  an  effect  upon  the  most  barbarous  and 
savage  hearts. 

''  This  was  the  secret  of  the  rapid  success  attrib- 
uted to  St.  Patrick's  preaching  in  Ireland.  The 
chieftains  were  at  first  the  real  converts.  The  bap- 
tism of  the  chieftains  was  immediately  followed  by 
the  adhesion  of  the  clan.  The  clansmen  pressed 
eagerly  around  the  missionary,  who  had  baptized 
the  chief,  anxious  to  receive  that  mysterious  initia- 
tion into  the  new  faith,  to  which  their  chieftain  and 
father  had  submitted.    The  requirements  preparatory 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  73 

to  baptism  do  not  seem  to  have  been  very  rigorous ; 
and  it  is,  therefore,  by  no  means  improbable  that  in 
Tirawley,  and  other  remote  districts,  where  the  spirit 
of  clanship  was  strong,  Patrick,  as  he  tells  us  him- 
self he  did,  may  have  baptized  some  thousands  of 
men." 

I  cannot  forbear  also  quoting  a  summary  view  of 
the  life  and  labors  of  the  Irish  apostle. 

"On  the  whole,  the  biographers  of  St.  Patrick, 
notwithstanding  the  admixture  of  much  fable,  have 
undoubtedly  portrayed  in  his  character  the  features 
of  a  great  and  judicious  missionary.  He  seems  to 
have  made  himself '  all  things,'  in  accordance  with 
the  apostolic  injunction,  to  the  rude  and  barbarous 
tribes  of  Ireland.  He  dealt  tenderly  with  their 
usages  and  prejudices.  Although  he  sometimes  felt 
it  necessary  to  overturn  their  idols,  and  on  some 
occasions  risked  his  life,  he  was  guilty  of  no  offen- 
sive or  unnecessary  iconoclasm.  A  native  himself  of 
another  country,  he  adopted  the  language  of  the 
Irish  tribes,  and  conformed  to  their  political  institu- 
tions. By  his  judicious  management,  the  Chris- 
tianity which  he  founded  became  self-supporting.  It 
was  endowed  by  the  chieftains  without  any  foreign 
aid.  It  was  supplied  with  prelates  [ecclesiastics?] 
by  the  people  themselves ;  and  its  fruits  were  soon 
seen  in  that  wonderful  stream  of  zealous  mission- 
aries, the  glory  of  the  Irish  Church,  who  went  forth 


74  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  to  evangelize  the 
barbarians  of  Central  Europe."  ^ 

When  this  zealous  missionary  died,  about  the 
year  493,  his  disciples,  who  seem  all  to  have  been 
natives  of  Ireland,  —  a  native  ministry,  —  continued 
his  work  in  the  same  spirit.  The  monasteries  be- 
came at  length  so  numerous  and  famous,  that  Ire- 
land was  called  Insula  Sanctorum,  the  "  Island  of 
Saints."  2 

It  gives  a  wrong  idea  of  these  institutions  to  call 
them  monasteries,  or  to  call  their  inmates  monks. 
"  They  were  schools  of  learning  and  abodes  of  piety, 
uniting  the  instruction  of  the  college,  the  labors  of 
the  workshop,  the  charities  of  the  hospital,  and  the 
worship  of  the  church.  They  originated  partly  in  a 
mistaken  view  of  the  Christian  life,  and  partly  out 
of  the  necessity  of  the  case,  which  drove  Christians 
to  live  together  for  mutual  protection.  The  mission- 
ary spirit,  and  consequent  religious  activity,  pre- 
vailing in  the  Irish  monasteries,  preserved  them  for 
a  long  time  from  the  asceticism  and  mysticism  inci- 
dental to  the  monastic  life,  and  made  them  a  source 
of  blessing  to  the  world."  ^  The  celibacy  of  the 
clergy  was  not  enjoined  in  those  times.^  Married 
men  were  connected  with  the  cloisters,  living,  how- 

1  Life  of  St.  Patrick,  pp.  499,  514. 

^  Neander's  Church  History,  vol.  iii.  p.  103  ;  and  Memorial,  p.  434. 

3  Walsh's  Christian  Missions,  p.  74. 

*  Usher's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  137  ;  vol.  iv.  p.  294. 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  .  75 

ever,  in  single  houses.  The  Scriptures  were  read, 
and  ancient  hooks  were  collected  and  studied. 

The  missions  which  went  forth  from  these  institu- 
tions, as  also  those  from  England  and  Wales,  are 
frequently  called  "  Culdee  "  missions ;  hut  as  that 
term  is  of  uncertain  import,  and  appears  to  add 
nothing  to  the  significance  of  the  history,  hut  rather 
the  contrary,  it  is  not  here  used. 

Neither  have  I  deemed  it  necessary  to  discuss  the 
ecclesiastical  position  and  relations  of  Patrick  and 
his  three  hundred  and  fifty  Irish  associates.  Epis- 
copal writers  call  them  all  bishops ;  hut  are  naturally 
perplexed  by  their  great  number.  In  my  apprehen- 
sion, they  have  their  counterpart  in  the  foreign 
missionaries  of  modern  times  and  their  native  cleri- 
cal associates,  —  more  especially  the  latter;  the 
one  class  (including  Patrick  himself)  being  neither 
more  nor  less  bishops  than  the  other.  In  this 
manner,  we  are  not  incommoded  with  the  difficulty 
of  accounting  for  the  acknowledged  fact,  of  the  very 
slight  reference  made  to  Patrick  by  the  Irish  mis- 
sionaries of  subsequent  ages ;  and  I  find  no  reason 
in  that  fact  for  assuming,  as  some  have  done,  that 
those  missionaries  were  connected  with  the  British 
and  not  with  the  Irish  churches. 

The  names  of  Columba  and  Columbanus  are  famil- 
iar to  the  readers  of  ecclesiastical  history.  Both 
were  Irish  missionaries,  and  both  were  from  the  in- 
stitution at  Bangor,  in  Ireland. 


76  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

Columba's  mission  was  to  the  Picts  of  Scotland, 
and  was  entered  upon  at  the  age  of  forty-two,  in  the 
year  563.  This  was  thirteen  hundred  years  ago,  and 
about  seventy  years  after  the  time  of  Patrick.  He 
was  accompanied  by  twelve  associates,  and  was  the 
founder  of  the  celebrated  monastery  on  lona,  an' 
island  situated  on  the  north  of  Scotland,  now  reck- 
oned one  of  the  Hebrides.  This  school  of  the  proph- 
ets, which  has  had  an  enduring  fame,  became  one  of 
the  chief  lights  of  that  age.  Continuing  thirty -five 
years  under  Columba's  management,  it  attained  a 
high  reputation  for  Biblical  studies,  and  other  sci- 
ences ;  and  missionaries  went  from  it  to  the  north- 
ern and  southern  Picts  of  Scotland,  and  into  Eng- 
land, along  the  eastern  coast  to  the  Thames,  and  to 
the  European  continent.^ 

Columbanus  entered  on  his  mission  to  the  par- 
tially Christianized,  but  more  especially  to  the  pagan 
portions  of  Europe,  in  the  year  589.  That  he  was 
an  evangelical  missionary  may  be  confidently  in- 
ferred from  the  tenor  of  his  life,  and  from  the 
records  of  his  Christian  experience. 

He  thus  writes :  "  0  Lord,  give  me,  I  beseech 
thee,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  thy  Son,  my  God, 
that  love  which  can  never  cease,  that  will  kindle  my 
lamp  but  not  extinguish  it,  that  it  may  burn  in  me 

1  Neander's  Church  History,  vol.  iii.  p.  10  ;  McLauchlan's  History 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  pp.  225,  226. 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  77 

and  enlighten  others.  Do  thou,  0  Christ,  our  dear- 
est Saviour,  thyself  kindle  our  lamps,  that  they  may 
evermore  shine  in  thy  temple ;  that  they  may  receive 
unquenchable  light  from  thee,  that  will  enlighten 
our  darkness,  and  lessen  the  darkness  of  the  world. 
My  Jesus,  1  pray  thee,  give  thy  light  to  my  lamp, 
that  in  its  light  the  most  holy  place  may  be  revealed 
to  me  in  which  thou  dwellest  as  the  eternal  Priest, 
that  I  may  always  behold  thee,  desire  thee,  look 
upon  thee  in  love,  and  long  after  thee."  ^ 

Columbanus  went  first  to  France,  taking  with  him 
twelve  young  men,  as  Columba  had  done,  to  be  his 
co-laborers;  men  who  had  been  trained  under  his 
especial  guidance.  Here,  as  a  consequence  of  con- 
tinual wars,  political  disturbances,  and  the  remiss- 
ness of  worldly-minded  ecclesiastics,  the  greatest  con- 
fusion and  irregularity  prevailed,  and  there  was  great 
degeneracy  in  the  monastic  orders.  Columbanus 
preferred  casting  his  lot  among  the  pagans  of  Bur- 
gundy, and  chose  for  his  settlement  the  ruins  of  an 
ancient  castle  in  the  midst  of  an  immense  wilder- 
ness, at  the  foot  of  the  Vosges  mountains.^  There 
they  often  suffered  hunger,  until  the  wilderness  had 
been  in  some  measure  subdued,  and  the  earth 
brought  under  cultivation.  The  mission  then  be- 
came self-supporting,  but  we  are  not  informed  by 
what  means  the  previous  expenses  were  defrayed. 
Preaching  was  a  part  of  their  duty,  though  there 

1  Neander's  Memorials.  ^  Neander's  Memorials,  p.  35. 


78  FORKIGN  MISSIONS. 

is  less  said  of  this,  than  of  their  efforts  to  impart 
the  benefits  of  a  Christian  education  to  the  children 
of  the  higher  classes.  The  surrounding  poor  were 
taught  gratuitously.  All  the  pupils  joined  in  tilling 
the  fields,  and  such  was  their  success  in  education, 
that  the  Frank ish  nobles  were  forward  to  place  their 
sons  under  their  care.  It  was  the  most  famous 
school  in  Burgundy,  and  there  was  not  room  in  the 
abbey  for  all  who  pressed  to  gain  admittance ;  so 
that  it  became  necessary  to  erect  other  buildings, 
and  to  bring  a  large  number  of  teachers  over  from 
Ireland  to  meet  the  demand. 

Here  the  eminent  missionary  pursued  his  labors 
for  a  score  of  years.  As  he  represents  himself  to 
have  buried  as  many  as  seventeen  of  his  associates 
during  twelve  years,  the  number  of  his  co-laborers 
must  have  been  large.  The  discipline  which  Colum- 
banus  imposed  on  the  monastic  life  was  severe,  but 
perhaps  scarcely  more  so  than  was  required  by  the 
rude  spirit  of  the  age ;  and  he  took  pains  to  avoid 
the  error  so  prevalent  in  the  Romish  Church,  of 
making  the  essence  of  piety  to  consist  in  externals. 
The  drift  of  his  teaching  was,  that  everyttiing  de- 
pended on  the  state  of  the  heart.  Both  by  precept 
and  example  he  sought  to  combine  the  contempla- 
tive with  the  useful.  At  the  same  time  he  adhered, 
with  a  free  and  independent  spirit,  to  the  peculiar 
religious  usages  of  his  native  land.  As  these  differed 
in   some  important  respects  from  what  were  then 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  79 

prevalent  among  the  degenerate  Frankish  clergy,  he 
had  many  enemies  among  them  who  sought  to  drive 
him  from  the  country.  This  they  at  length  effected, 
with  the  aid  of  the  wicked  mother  of  the  reigning 
prince.  Columhanus  was  ordered  to  return  to  Ire- 
land, and  to  take  his  countrymen  with  him.  This 
he  did  not  do,  but  repaired  first  to  Germany,  and 
then  to  Switzerland.  He  spent  a  year  near  the 
eastern  extremity  of  the  Lake  Constance,  laboring 
among  the  Suevi,  a  heathen  people  in  that  neighbor- 
hood. This  territory  coming  at  length  under  the 
dominion  of  his  enemies,  he  crossed  the  Alps,  in  the 
year  612,  into  Lombardy,  and  founded  a  monastery 
near  Pavia ;  and  there  this  apostle  to  Franks,  Swa- 
bians,  Bavarians,  and  other  nations  of  Germany, 
passed  the  remainder  of  his  days,  and  breathed  out 
his  life  on  the  twenty-first  of  November,  615,  aged 
seventy- two  years. ^ 

Gallus,  a  favorite  pupil  and  follower  of  Columha- 
nus, remained  behind  in  consequence  of  illness,  and 
became  the  apostle  of  Switzerland.  He  also  was  an 
Irishman,  and  was  characterized,  as  was  his  master, 
by  love  for  the  sacred  volume.  In  what  was  then  a 
wilderness  he  founded  a  monastery,  "  which  led  to 
the  clearing  up  of  the  forest,  and  the  conversion  of 
the  land  into  cultivable  soil,  and  it  afterwards  be- 
came celebrated  under  his  name,  St.  Gall."  Here 
he  labored  for  the  Swiss  and  Swabian  population  till 

1  Webb's  Annotations,  p.  71. 


80  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

his  death,  in  the  year  640.^  This  monastery  was 
preeminent  for  the  nnmber  and  beauty  of  the  man- 
uscripts prepared  by  its  monks ;  many  of  which,  and 
among  others,  some  fragments  of  a  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  into  the  Alemanni  language,  about 
the  year  700,  are  said  to  be  preserved  in  the  libra- 
ries of  Germany. 

There  is  no  special  advantage  in  going  further 
into  the  details  of  these  missions.  Neander  is  of 
the  opinion,  that  the  number  of  missionaries  who 
passed  over  from  Ireland  to  the  continent  of  Europe 
must  have  been  great ;  though  of  very  few  is  there 
any  exact  information.  Wherever  they  went,  clois- 
ters were  founded,  and  the  wilderness  soon  gave 
place  to  cultivated  %elds.  According  to  Ebrard, 
there  were  more  than  forty  cloisters  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  Loire  and  Rhone,  which  were  governed  ac- 
cording to  the  rules  of  Columbanus,  and  to  which 
emigrants  came  from  Ireland  as  late  as  the  close  of 
the  seventh  century.  He  also  affirms,  that  Germany 
was  almost  wholly  heathen  when  that  missionary 
entered  it.  But  before  the  year  720,  the  gospel  had 
been  proclaimed  by  himself  and  his  countrymen, 
from  the  mountains  of  Switzerland  down  to  the 
islands  in  the  delta  of  the  Rhine,  and  eastward  from 
that  river  to  the  river  Inn,  and  the  Bohemian  forest, 
and  the  borders  of  Saxony,  and  still  farther  on  the 

1  Neander's  History,  vol.  iii.  p.  36. 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  81 

sea-coast ;  and  all  the  really  German  tribes  within 
those  borders  were  in  subjection  to  the  Christian 
faith  as  it  had  been  taught  by  the  Irish  missiona- 
ries.^ 

It  was  in  723  that  the  English  Winfred,  better 
known  as  Boniface,  began  his  well-intentioned  and 
successful  labors  to  reduce  the  Germanic  Irish 
Church  to  the  Roman  rule.  But  into  that  part  of 
the  history  —  the  subjection  of  the  German  Church 
to  the  Romish  See  —  I  cannot  now  enter,  as  it  does 
not  come  within  my  proper  range. 

Ebrard's  earnest  testimony  to  the  evangelical 
nature  of  the  Irish  missions,  should  not  be  over- 
looked. He  declares,  that  they  read  the  Scriptures 
in  the  original  text ;  translated  them  wherever  they 
went;  expounded  them  to  the  congregations;  rec- 
ommended the  regular  and  diligent  perusal  of 
them;  and  held  them  to  be  the  living  word  of 
Christ.  The  Scriptures  were  their  only  rule  of  faith. 
They  preached  the  inherited  depravity  of  man ;  the 
atoning  death  of  Christ;  justification  without  the 
merit  of  works ;  regeneration  as  the  life  in  Him  who 
died  for  us ;  and  the  sacraments  as  signs  and  seals 
of  grace  in  Christ.  They  held  to  no  transubstantia- 
tion ;  no  purgatory ;  no  prayers  to  saints ;  and  their 
worship  was  in  the  native  language.  But  though 
they  used  neither  pictures  nor  images,  they  seem 
to  have  been  attached  to  the  use  of  the  simple  cross; 

1  Ebrard's  Manual,  vol.  i.  pp.  409,  410,  415,  416. 


82  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

and  Gallus,  the  distinguished  companion  of  Colum- 
ban  us,  is  said,  when  marking  out  a  place  on  which 
to  erect  a  monastery,  to  have  done  it  by  means  of  a 
cross,  from  which  he  had  suspended  a  capsule  of 
relics.^  Complete  exemption  from  superstition,  was 
perhaps  among  the  impossibilities  of  that  age. 

The  statement  of  evangelical  truths  in  the  ancient 
Irish  Church,  may  be  enlarged.  The  life  of  Colum- 
banus,  by  his  friend  and  successor  Jonas,  somehow 
escaped  destruction  under  the  papal  interdict,  and  is 
our  fullest  record  of  individual  Irish  missionaries. 
We  have  also  a  statement  of  the  doctrinal  views  of 
two  distinguished  missionaries  from  Ireland,  in  the 
eighth  century,  named  Clement  and  Yirgilius ;  and 
of  another,  still  more  distinguished,  named  Claude, 
in  the  ninth  century,  two  hundred  years  after  Col- 
umbanus.  From  these  and  other  sources  it  is  in- 
ferred, that  the  early  Irish  Church  did  not  inculcate 
adoration  of  relics  and  images ;  nor  pilgrimages ; 
nor  auricular  confessions,  penances,  or  absolution ; 
nor  masses ;  nor  works  of  supererogation  ;  nor  ado- 
ration of  the  Virgin  Mary  ;  nor  baptismal  regenera- 
tion. And  Mosheim  declares  the  Irish  divines  to 
have  been  the  only  ones  in  the  ninth  century,  who 
refused  to  submit  implicitly  to  the  dictates  of 
authority. 

Yet  there  were  defects  in  the  Irish  missions,  grow- 

1  Ebrard's  Manual,  vol.  i.  p.  396 ;  Neander's  History,  vol.  iii.  p.  36. 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  8B 

ing"  out  of  the  times,  and  such  as  were  uot  easily 
avoided. 

1.  They  did  not  fully  recover  the  apostolic  idea, 
which  had  heen  lost,  of  the  local,  self-governed 
church.  Their  churches,  so  to  speak,  were  monas- 
teries or  colleges,  held  together  hy  the  authority  of 
priest  or  abhofc.  Hence  the  perpetual  pupilage  of 
their  missionary  communities,  and  the  consequent 
protracted  need  in  those  communities  of  foreign  cul- 
ture and  aid.  In  our  own  sense  of  the  term,  they 
'appear  to  have  had  no  local,  self-governed  churches. 

Nor  was  religious  freedom  of  thought  and  action  a 
current  idea  in  those  ages,  even  in  the  Irish  clois- 
ters.i  Then  the  Irish  missions  were  too  protracted. 
Irish  missionaries  continued  to  be  needed,  and  to 
follow  each  other  into  Germany  for  successive  ages. 
And  so  it  must  be  in  missions  where  the  church  of 
the  Apostle  Paul  is  not  a  primary  element  in  the 
working  of  the  mission. 

2.  The  leading  instrumentality  employed  by  the 
Irish  missionaries,  appears  to  have  been  education. 
Light  and  influence  were  thus  diffused,  and  the  edu- 
cation was  an  essential  thing.  But  though  the 
Scriptures  appear  to  have  been  freely  used  by  the 
missionaries,  so  far  as  was  possible  in  an  age  of 
costly  manuscripts,  and  though  there  was  preaching, 
and  often  no  doubt  much  of  it,  yet  schools  would 
seem  to  have  been  the  predominant  agency.     These 

1  Neander's  Memorials  of  Christian  Life,  p.  438. 


84  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

were  so  in  the  monastery ;  and  while  they  may  have 
heen  essential  to  the  life  of  such  institutions  as  grew 
out  of  the  Irish  missions,  they  had  not,  in  them- 
selves, the  renovating,  life-giving  power  essential  to 
the  creation  and  preservation  of  the  organized,  self- 
propagating  church.  And  the  predominance  of 
school  instruction  over  preaching,  if  such  were  the 
fact,  was  an  error. 

3.  Another  defect  in  these  missions  was  their 
want  of  intimate  connection  with  the  churches  at 
home.  The  missionaries  appear  not  to  have  heen- 
sent  forth  by  home  churches  acting  in  any  capacity, 
not  even  by  the  cloisters,  nor  to  have  derived  their 
support  from  their  native  land.^  We  do  not  know 
how  they  met  the  expense  of  travelling  into  what 
must  have  been  to  them  remote  regions.  But  when 
once  they  were  there,  they  became  associated  in 
schools,  or  cloisters,  and  were  soon  self-supported. 
And  having  abundant  occupation,  and  no  strong 
motive  for  keeping  their  work  before  the  attention 
of  Christians  at  home,  and  there  being  few  facilities 
for  correspondence,  the  missionaries  must  have  been 
soon  in  great  measure  forgotten.  Hence  Ireland 
lost  an  invaluable  reaction  from  its  missions ;  and 
hence,  probably,  one  cause,  along  with  the  destruc- 

1  McLauchlan  believes  there  were  contributions  made  in  Ireland  for 
the  continental  missions  nnder  direction  from  lona.  But  these  were 
probably  for  those  missionaries  only  who  went  from  lona,  and  it  is  also 
probable,  that  the  contributions  were  made  only  in  Ulster. 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  85 

tive  invasions  of  the  Northmen  in  the  ninth  and 
tenth  centuries,  of  the  apparent  decline  of  vital 
Christianity  in  that  island  before  the  more  general 
desolation  of  the  Norman  and  Papal  invasion. 

The  missionary' institution  at  lona,  which  dates 
from  the  sixth  century,  held  out  against  Romish 
aggression  until  the  eighth;  and  Ireland,  though 
sadly  ravaged  by  the  roving  Danes  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, maintained  its  religious  independence  three  or 
four  hundred  years  longer,  until  conquered  by  Henry 
the  Norman.  In  that  conquest,  which  was  avowedly 
made  in  the  interest  of  the  Pope,  and  for  a  long 
time  afterwards,  an  exterminating  war  is  said  to 
have  been  waged  against  such  of  the  old  manu- 
scripts of  the  Irish  Church  as  had  escaped  the 
ravages  of  the  Danes ;  and  also  against  the  schools, 
which,  for  several  hundred  years,  had  supplied  Eu- 
rope with  her  brightest  examples  of  Christian  life, 
and  her  most  efficient  literary  teachers.^ 

But  the  ^eed  which  had  been  sowed  over  Central 
Europe,  though  long  buried,  sprang  up  in  the  Ref- 
ormation of  the  sixteenth  century.  And  it  is  a  fact 
of  some  interest  that  Luther,  the  great  leader  of  the 
Reformation,  came  from  the  convent  of  Erfuth,  one 
of  those  founded  many  ages  before  by  the  Irish  mis- 
sionaries, and  said  to  have  been  the  very  last  of  their 

1  Webb's  Annotations,  p.  177. 


86  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

German  convents  which  survived.^  He  was  a  monk 
of  the  order  of  St.  Augustine,  and  it  may  be  said  that 
the  two  streams  of  theological  influence,  having 
their  rise  a  thousand  years  before  —  the  one  from 
Augustine,  in  Northern  Africa,  the  other  from  Pat- 
rick, in  Ireland  —  were  here  united,  to  flow  on  to- 
gether for  ages  we  know  not  how  many. 

It  is  a  question  deserving  of  more  consideration 
than  I  have  the  means  of  giving,  how  the  early  and 
truly  Protestant  Christian  and  missionary  spirit  of 
the  Irish  people  came  to  so  melancholy  an  end.  The 
invasions  of  the  Danes  must  have  exerted  a  disas- 
trous influence,  both  upon  the  learning  and  the  re- 
ligion of  the  island.  A  Roman  Catholic  historian 
asserts,  that  these  sea-rovers  destroyed  the  Irish 
monastery  at  Bangor,  in  the  year  821,  and  massacred 
nine  hundred  of  its  inmates.^  The  middle  of  the 
ninth  century  was  specially  distinguished  for  these 
inroads,  but  they  extended  into  the  tenth.  The 
Irish  Church  retained  its  independence  longer  than 
the  Church  of  England,  and  its  missiona-ry  light  in 
consequence  burned  longer  and  brighter.  But  this 
spirit  gradually  declined,  until  her  sons,  while  they 
continued  to  travel  in  numbers  through  foreign 
countries,  went  rather  as  teachers  of  the  Prankish 
clergy,  than  as  preachers.^ 

1  Walsh's  Christian  Missions,  p.  82. 

2  Brenan's  Eccl  Hist,  of  Ireland,  Dublin,  1864,  p.  158. 
8  Walsh's  Christian  Missions,  p.  82. 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  87 

The  bull  of  Pope  Adrian  IV.,  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, authorizing  Henry  11.  to  invade  Ireland,  for 
the  purpose,  as  he  said,  of  "  extending  the  bound- 
aries of  the  church,"  shows  that,  up  to  that  time, 
Rome  had  no  control  of  the  island.  The  frightful 
carnage  and  desolation  occasioned  by  these  Norman 
invaders,  and  the  subsequent  stout  opposition  of  the 
Irish  clergy  and  the  people  to  the  papal  decrees,  are 
admitted  by  papal  historians.^  But  the  unremitted 
efforts  of  the  Romish  Church  to  subvert  the  eccle- 
siastical constitution  of  Ireland,  were  at  length  suc- 
cessful ;  and  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  seeds  whereof  had  long  before  been  planted 
by  Irish  missionaries,  seems  not  to  have  exerted 
much  influence  in  Ireland.  It  was  repelled  by  the 
native  Irish,  out  of  their  intense  hatred  of  England  5 
and  Richard  Baxter,  a  contemporary  witness,  says, 
that  Papists,  in  the  days  of  Charles  I.,  rising  at 
once  all  over  the  island,  massacred  two  hundred  thou- 
sand Protestants  within  the  space  of  a  few  weeks. ^ 
The  Irish  Jesuit,  O'Mahoney,  confessed,  in  1645, 
that  his  party  had  cut  off  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  heretics  in  the  space  of  four  years.^ 
The  retribution  by  Cromwell,  eight  years  after  the 
massacre,  was  terrible.  Forty  thousand  Irish  sol- 
diers were  transported  to  Spain,  France,  and  Poland, 

1  Brenan's  Ecd.  Hist,  of  Ireland,  pp.  232,  237,  238. 

2  Jesuit  Juggling;  or,  Forty  Popish  Frauds  Detect^  and  Disclosed^ 
New  York,  1835. 

8  Edinburgh  Review,  Oct.  1845,  p.  264. 


88  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

where  they  were  drafted  into  the  armies  of  those 
kingdoms ;  and  the  "  Irish  nation  "  was  compelled 
to  vacate  ten  of  the  most  fertile  counties,  and  crowd 
itself  into  the  counties  of  Connaught  and  Clare. 
The  whole  island,  excepting  those  counties  —  and 
also  a  part  of  Ulster,  which  was  already  occupied  hy 
Scotch  settlers  —  was  assigned  to  the  English  army 
and  to  English  colonists.  The  Scotchmen  of  Ulster 
brought  with  them  families,  and  obtained  godly  min- 
isters from  Scotland,  who  remained  through  the  pre- 
latic  persecutions  of  after  times,  and  the  good  results 
are  still  seen.  The  Cromwell  soldiers,  on  the  other 
hand,  felt  obliged  to  intermarry  with  the  natives, 
and  were  thus  absorbed,  in  a  few  generations,  into 
the  mass  of  the  unenterprising,  unimproving  Roman 
Catholic  population.  It  should  be  added,  that  most 
of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty  Independent  and 
Baptist  ministers,  who  had  been  sent  to  look  after 
the  spiritual  interests  of  this  class  of  settlers,  re- 
turned to  England  when  their  salaries  were  with- 
drawn at  the  Restoration,  having  no  means  of  support, 
leaving  their  people  without  provision  for  their  spir- 
itual wants.  The  Episcopal  establishment,  which 
took  the  place  of  these,  though  it  was  and  is  richly 
endowed,  seems  never  to  have  exerted  a  decided  re- 
ligious influence ;  ^  and  its  disestablishment  is  now 
one  of  the  exciting  questions  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment and  nation. 

1  See  Edinburgh  Review,  for  Oct.   1865,  p.  270 ;  North  British  He- 
view,  Dec.  1866. 


EARLY  IRISH  MISSIONS.  89 

In  a  review  of  the  Irish  missions  in  the  early 
ages  of  the  Christian  Church,  I  have  heen  not  a 
little  interested  in  the  reflections  and  inferences 
with  which  I  close  this  statement. 

It  surely  is  wonderful,  that  the  Irish  missions 
continued  in  operation  so  long.  For,  unlike  papal 
missions,  they  had  no  strong  central  government  to 
urge  them  forward,  and  to  lean  upon.  Indeed  the 
Irish  missions  had  nothing  of  the  kind.  Just  think 
of  missions,  with  such  defective  agencies,  and  moved 
only  by  the  voluntary  principle,  being  prosecuted 
continuously  for  successive  centuries  !  There  must 
have  been  a  good  degree  of  Christian  principle  back 
of  all  this.  And  whether  we  regard  the  missionary 
spirit  as  the  normal  condition  of  piety  in  the  true 
church  of  God  or  not,  we  must  admit  that  the  mis- 
sionary work,  when  once  fairly  entered  upon  by  a 
large  body  of  true  Christians,  is  not  likely  to  be  of 
transient  duration  ;  and  especially  that  it  will  not 
be  so  in  our  day.  This  seems  to  be  a  legitimate 
inference  from  the  wonderfully  protracted  missions 
now  under  consideration,  and  it  may  well  encourage 
us.  Surely  if  the  Irish  missions  of  those  early  ages 
had  so  much  of  life  and  duration,  we  may  expect  the 
missions  of  our  times,  with  their  purer  theology, 
their  freer  spirit,  their  great  extent,  and  their 
numerous  other  advantages  both  in  the  church  and 
the  world,  will  have  an  enduring  existence.  If  the 
Protestant  nations  which  send  them  forth  do  not  re- 


90  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

lapse  into  a  worldly  formalism  —  and  the  missionary 
enterprises  of  our  times  are  a  great  defense  against 
such  a  result  —  the  Protestant  missions  may  be  ex- 
pected to  grow  and  extend  until  their  great  work  is 
accomplished. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

HISTOEICAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN   MISSIONS. 

Importance  of  the  Subject.  —  No  DiiFerence  of  Opinion  as  to  the  Object 

of  Missions Diversity  as  to  Modes  of  Operating.  — Number  to  be 

Evangelized. —  Not  a  Hopeless  Work.  —  How  to  be  accomplished. 
Method  proposed  by  Gordon  Hall.  —  Why  not  rely  on  such  Cal- 
culations. —  Great  Providential  Results  usually  exceed  our  Cal- 
culations.—  Analogy  between  Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions. 
Missions  a  Work  of  Faith. — Use  of  Agriculture  and  the  Arts. 
Of  the  Language,  Literature,  Science,  and  Manners  of  Western 
Civilization.  —  St.  Paul's  Dealing  with  Churches.  —  Why  Native 
Churches  should  engage  in  Foreign  Missions.  — Result  of  Experi- 
ence. 

I  PROPOSE,  in  this  chapter  and  the  next,  to  give  a 
practical  illustration  of  the  nature  of  modern  mis- 
sions. The  subject  is  vitally  important,  and  I  would 
present  it  so  as  at  the  same  time  to  interest  the 
attention  of  the  reader,  and  to  satisfy  his  judgment. 
I  shall  be  expected  to  develop  the  missionary  work 
in  connection  with  its  principles,  and  shall  treat 
the  case  historically,  so  far  as  may  be,  giving  the 
facts  needful  for  the  forming  of  opinions. 

I  know  of  no  diversity,  in  the  views  of  different 
portions  of  the  Evangelical  Church,  as  to  the  proper 
objects  of  missions;  for  there  is  no  mistaking  the 
command,  on  which  the  enterprise  is  founded,  which 


9*2  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

is  SO  to  make  known  the  gospel  to  perishing  men  as 
to  induce  them  to  repent  and  believe  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  So  far  as  there  has  been  diversity  of 
opinion,  it  has  been  in  respect  to  the  most  effectual 
methods  of  bringing  the  gospel  to  bear  on  the  hearts 
and  lives  of  the  unevangelized,  in  their  different  con- 
ditions and  countries.  Here  there  has  been  con- 
siderable difference  of  opinion,  and  of  practice,  in 
the  different  missionary  societies,  and  in  the  same 
missionary  society  at  different  stages  of  its  progress. 

We  have  already  seen  how  more  than  six  hundred 
millions  of  heathen  were  made  accessible  to  the  gos- 
pel, who  were  not  accessible  to  it  forty  years  ago ; 
and  how  the  Evangelical  Church  is  beginning  to 
rouse  itself  to  the  work  of  sending  the  gospel  to 
them.  I  must  add  two  hundred  millions  to  the  six 
hundred,  for  parts  of  the  unevangelized  world  not 
distinctly  embraced  in  that  survey,  and  we  have  at 
least  eight  hundred  millions  to  be  somehow  evan- 
gelized. 

A  work  of  such  magnitude  would  be  appalling, 
v^rere  it  not  expressly  enjoined  upon  us  by  divine 
command,  with  the  promise  of  all  needed  dfvine  aid ; 
and  were  it  not  brought  before  the  church  by  almost 
miraculous  interventions  of  Providence,  and  with 
the  facilities  for  doing  it  multiplied  a  hundred  fold. 

There  must  be  a  possible  way  of  accomplishing 
the  work,  vast  as  it  is ;  and  the  question  now  before 
us  is,  What  is  that  way  ? 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN  MISSIONS.  93 

Gordon  Hall,  one  of.  the  first  and  ablest  of  the 
American  missionaries,  writing  fifty  years  ago  in  the 
celebrated  tract  entitled  "  Claims  of  Six  Hundred  Mil- 
lions," held  that  the  work  was  to  be  done  by  sending 
one  missionary  for  every  twenty  thousand  souls.  He 
says :  "  One  missionary  for  every  twenty  thousand 
souls  may  be  considered  a  tolerable  supply,  because 
that  wherever  the  gospel  is  preached,  and  its  power 
experienced,  native  preachers  will  be  raised  up  on  the 
spot,  to  aid  missionaries,  and  ultimately  to  take  the 
work  off  their  hands."  With  one  missionary  to  every 
twenty  thousand  souls,  and  as  many  as  nine  native 
preachers  to  every  missionary,  he  says,  the  heathen 
world  would  have  as  great  a  proportion  of  Christian 
teachers  as  the  United  States  was  supposed  then 
to  have.  He  also  shows  the  possibility  of  bringing 
all  these  missionaries  on  the  ground  in  twenty-one 
years. 

But  I  have  ceased  to  place  much  reliance  on  such 
calculations.  Great  results  depending  on  the  prov- 
idence and  grace  of  God,  come  about  much  easier 
and  more  rapidly  than  our  previous  calculations 
would  lead  us  to  expect.  Was  it  not  marvelously  so 
with  the  liberation  of  our  four  millions  of  slaves  ? 
It  will  doubtless  be  so  with  the  conversion  of  the 
world.  Let  one  reflect  how  soon  the  old  Roman 
Empire  was  compelled  to  receive  the  Christian  name, 
notwithstanding  the  whole  force  of  that  mighty  em- 
pire was  in  determined  resistance,  and  he  will  see 


94  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

how  little  human  calculations  have  to  do  with  such 
matters.  The  very  wonderful  opening  of  the  un- 
evangelized  world  to  the  gospel,  and  the  preparation 
in  Christendom  for  sending  it .  forth,  as  already- 
described,  lead  to  the  same  conclusion.  I  therefore 
go  into  no  general  calculations  as  to  the  time,  or  the 
number  of  missionaries,  necessary  for  the  whole 
work.  My  belief  is,  that  "  the  Lord  will  hasten  it 
in  his  time."  ^ 

There  is  a  striking  analogy,  in  one  respect,  between 
the  apostolic  missions  and  those  of  modern  times. 
The  apostles,  as  a  body,  were  a  considerable  time  in 
coming  to  the  conclusion,  that  Gentile  Christian 
churches  ought  not  to  be  subjected  to  the  Jewish 
ritual ;  that  is  to  say,  they  were  so  long  in  securing 
an  acknowledged  purely  spiritual  basis  for  their 
foreign  missions.  We,  also,  have  had  substantially 
the  same  difficulty  in  respect  to  the  purely  spiritual 
nature  of  the  missionary  work  itself,  and  we  have 
been  longer  in  surmounting  that  difficulty,  if  we 
have  even  yet  fully  surmounted  it.  The  main  cause 
of  our  difficulty,  however,  is  not  one  that  affected  the 
apostolic  missions.  It  has  been  the  higher  civiliza- 
tion of  the  Christian  Church,  as  compared  with  that 
of  modern  heathen  nations.  This  has  tended  to  con- 
fuse our  conceptions  of  the  religion  we  were  to  prop- 
agate. Our  idea  of  the  Christian  religion  from  our 
childhood  has  been  identified  with  education,  social 

1  Isa.  Ix.  22. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN  MISSIONS.         95 

order,  and  a  certain  correctness  of  morals  and  man- 
ners ;  in  other  words,  with  civilization.  It  is  even 
true  of  us  all,  that  the  civilization  of  centuries  forms 
a  part  of  the  hourly  manifestations  of  our  piety ;  and 
we  seldom  reflect  how  our  personal  religion  would 
appear  to  casual  observers,  were  we  divested  of  a 
culture  which  we  share  in  common  with  the  world 
around  us. 

This  composite  idea  of  the  gospel  (if  I  may  so 
describe  it),  this  foreign  intermixture,  has  placed 
the  missionaries  of  our  day  under  a  disadvantage,  as 
compared  with  missionaries  in  the  apostolic  age.  It 
has  weakened  their  faith  in  that  perfectly  simple  form 
of  the  gospel  as  a  converting  agency,  in  which  it  was 
apprehended  by  the  apostles  ;  and  also  their  reliance 
on  the  divine  power,  upon  which  the  apostles  so  ex- 
clusively depended  for  success. 

This  faith  in  God,  and  in  his  appointed  means  for 
the  conversion  of  the  world,  is  now  the  grand  de- 
sideratum in  the  Christian  Church,  and  in  Christian 
missions.  And  it  is  remarkable,  through  the  whole 
recorded  history  of  the  church,  what  a  demand  God 
has  ever  been  pleased  to  make  upon  it  for  an  exclu- 
sive faith  in  the  divine  presence  and  power.  The 
church  of  the  old  dispensation  stood  on  the  defen- 
sive, with  a  hostile  world  around  it.  Yet  it  was  for- 
bidden to  trust  in  chariots  and  horsemen,  and  only 
in  Jehovah.  The  forty-sixth  Psalm,  beginning, 
"  God  is  our  Refuge  and  Strength,"  was  the  jubilant 


9G  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

song  of  piety  with  the  ancient  theocratic  people,  in 
view  of  their  entire  safety  under  the  protection  of 
Almighty  God. 

The  church  of  the  new  or  Christian  dispensation, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  an  aggressive  hody,  with  insti- 
tutions all  shaped  for  conquest  and  extension.  It 
exists  for  the  spiritual  suhjugation  of  the  world. 
And  in  the  use  of  its  spiritual  weapons,  it  is  as  much 
required  to  rely  on  the  Almighty  Saviour  and  the 
"  Spirit  of  Truth,"  as  the  church  of  the  old  dispen- 
sation was  on  Jehovah.  It  would  seem  to  he  no 
more  allowahle  for  the  Christian  Church  or  for  its 
missionaries  to  "trust  in  chariots  and  horsemen," 
and  "  go  to  Egypt  for  help,"  than  it  was  for  God's 
ancient  people. 

Experience,  with  the  grace  of  God,  has  heen 
bringing  us  gradually  into  more  spiritual  concep- 
tions of  the  end  we  should  have  in  view,  and  of  the 
means  by  which  that  end  is  to  be  attained.  This  I 
am  now  to  illustrate,  in  several  particulars. 

1.  A  question  often  mooted  at  the  outset  of 
modern  Christian  missions,  and  sometimes  mooted 
now,  is.  Whether  savages  must  be  civilized  before 
they  can  be  Christianized.  I  shall  be  excused  for 
drawing  illustrations  of  this  point  from  missions 
with  which  I  have  been  most  conversant.  Our 
fathers,  in  their  earlier  missions  to  savage  peoples, 
acting  with  the  light  they  had,  avowedly  sent  Chris- 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN  MISSIONS.        97 

tianity  and  civilization  forth  together,  as  cooperat- 
ing forces.  For  instance,  ordained  missionaries  to 
the  North  American  Indians  were  accompanied  by 
farmers  and  mechanics ;  and  a  farmer  was  sent 
with  the  first  mission  to  the  Sandwich  Islands. 
The  American  Board,  in  its  Report  for  1816,  de- 
clared it  to  be  the  object  of  the  missions  to  the 
Indians,  "  to  make  them  English  in  their  language, 
civilized  in  their  habits,  and  Christian  in  their  re- 
ligion." And,  three  years  later,  the  pioneers  of  the 
Sandwich  Islands  mission  were  instructed,  "  to  aim 
at  nothing  short  of  covering  those  Islands  with 
fruitful  fields  and  pleasant  dwellings,  and  schools 
and  churches,  and  of  raising  the  whole  people  to  an 
elevated  state  of  Christian  civilization." 

What  now  have  been  the  results  of  experience? 
In  the  year  1823,  the  missions  of  the  American 
Board  to  the  Indians,  with  ten  preaching  missiona- 
ries, numbered  fifteen  farmers  and  mechanics.  In 
1842,  with  twenty-four  preaching  missionaries  in 
those  missions,  the  farmers  and  mechanics  had  been 
reduced  to  nine ;  and  in  1852,  thirty-six  years  from 
the  commencement  of  the  missions,  with  twenty-five 
preaching  missionaries,  not  a  single  farmer  or  me- 
chanic remained.  You  understand  the. import  of 
these  facts.  The  honest  aim  in  sending  these  secu- 
lar helpers  was  to  aid  the  preaching  missionaries. 
But  the  means  were  found  to  be  inappropriate.     A 


98  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

simpler,  cheaper,  more  effectual  means  of  civilizing 
the  savage,  was  the  gospel  alone. 

I  should  add,  that  the  missionary  farmer  sent  to 
the  Sandwich  Islands  remained  there  only  a  short 
time ;  and  never  since  has  there  been  a  thought  of 
sending  another. 

Thus  ended  the  experiment  by  the  American 
Board,  of  connecting  agriculture  and  the  arts  with 
the  missionary  agencies. 

2.  It  was  supposed  that,  in  the  spiritual  conquest 
of  modern  heathen  nations,  the  gospel  would  be  es- 
sentially aided  by  the  languages,  literature,  science, 
and  manners  of  Western  civilization.  The  English 
language  being  the  chief  repository  of  this  civiliza- 
tion in  its  evangelical  form,  it  has  been  more  or  less 
used  as  a  medium.  The  Report  of  the  American 
Board  for  1816,  already  quoted,  declared  —  and  it 
was  then  the  general  belief — that  if  the  Indians 
should  learn  the  English  language,  their  sources  of 
knowledge  and  means  of  improvement  would  be 
vastly  greater  than  they  could  be  with  only  their 
own  language ;  and  that,  being  thus  assimilated  in 
language  to  their  white  neighbors,  they  would  more 
readily  become  assimilated  to  them  \\j^  habits  and 
manners.  But  the  venerable  Dr.  Kingsbury,  the 
first  missionary  sent  to  the  Indians  by  the  American 
Board,  and  still  living  among  the  Choctaws,  writing 
in  1861,  forty  years  after  entering  the  field,  bears 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN  MISSIONS.        99 

the  following  testimony:  "With  a  few  interesting 
exceptions,"  he  says,  "  those  who  acquired  the  most 
knowledge  of  the  English  language  seemed  the 
farthest  from  embracing  the  gospel,  and  the  least 
disposed  to  attend  on  the  means  of  grace.  They 
-^•egarded  themselves  as  elevated  above  their  parents, 
and  the  mass  of  their  people,  and  became  vain  in 
their  imaginations,  and  their  foolish  hearts  were 
darkened."  At  the  same  time,  while  Dr.  Kingsbury 
believed  it  would  have  been  more  for  the  moral  and 
religious  interests  of  the  Indians  had  the  schools 
been  taught  wholly  in  their  own  vernacular,  he  did 
not  hesitate  to  pronounce  the  Choctaws  a  Christian 
nation. 

Another  illustration  I  derive  from  the  experience 
in  Syria.  A  high  school  was  established  by  the 
American  Board,  at  Beirut,  in  1835,  and  was  con- 
tinued in  operation  seven  years.  The  literature  of 
Western  civilization  was  taught  through  the  Eng- 
lish language,  and  the  boarding,  lodging,  and  cloth- 
ing had  a  Western  type.  The  pupils  were  faithfully 
instructed  in  the  Scriptures  ;  but  it  was  found,  that 
the  tendency  of  their  training,  on  the  whole,  was  to 
make  them  foreign  in  their  manners,  foreign  in  their 
habits,  foreign  in  their  sympathies ;  in  other  words, 
to  denationalize  them.  In  1842  that  seminary  was 
disbanded,  and  another  was  formed  on  Mount  Leba- 
non, on  a  more  simple  plan,  and  with  a  thoroughly 
Biblical  instruction.     It  was  Arabic  in  its  language. 


100  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

clothing,  boarding",  and  lodging,  and  discounte- 
nanced all  aspirations  after  foreign  habits  and  cus- 
toms.^ 

I  shall  be  understood  as  now  speaking  of  missions, 
and  of  what  is  strictly  appropriate  to  them.  There 
is  a  stage  of  advancement  —  as,  perhaps,  at  Con- 
stantinople, Beirut,  Calcutta,  and  the  Sandwich 
Islands  —  where  a  portion  of  the  native  mind  de- 
mands a  broader,  higher  culture  even  than  the 
mission  can  give  ;  where  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to 
afford  it  through  a  college,  distinct  from  the  mis- 
sion, and  deriving  its  support  from  other  sources. 

I  shall  state  explicitly,  further  on,  what  I  conceive 
to  be  the  true  place  and  office  of  education  in  mis- 
sions. What  I  am  now  speaking  of,  is  the  growth 
of  experience  as  to  the  best  mode  of  conducting 
missions. 

The  natural  order  in  missions  is,  "  first  the  blade ; 
then  the  ear ;  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear." 
In  the  earlier  missions,  this  seems  not  to  have  been 
sufficiently  observed.  The  native  preachers  were 
sometimes  too  highly  taught  in  secular  knowledge 
for  the  incipient  stages  of  the  work.  Raised  too  far 
above  the  general  level  of  intelligence  among  their 
people,  they  longed  for  more  cultivated  hearers  than 
they  found  in  the  villages,  and  for  larger  salaries 
than  they  could  receive,  or  ought  to  receive,  and 
shrank  from  pastorates   in   obscure  places,  among 

1  Annual  Repmi,  1845,  pp.  133,  134. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  'MMRNMtf^Sldm.       lOl 

low-caste,  ignorant  people ;  and  sometimes  they  were 
impatient  of  advice  and  wholesome  restraint  from 
their  missionary  fathers.  In  some  quarters,  they 
were  tempted  to  contrast  business  relations  with  the 
world,  and  thus  the  labor  and  money  bestowed  on 
their  education  were  in  great  measure  lost  to  the 
cause. 

3.  We  have  been  slow  to  admit  the  extent  to  which 
the  Apostle  Paul's  method  of  dealing  with  native 
churches  is  applicable  to  the  missions  of  our  day. 
In  this  remark,  I  equally  include  missionaries  and 
their  directors.  The  apostle  wrote  to  Titus,  that 
he  had  left  him  in  Crete,  to  "  set  in  order  the 
things  that  were  wanting,  and  to  ordain  presbyters 
in  every  city ;  "  and  with  all  this  in  charge,  he  still 
required  the  evangelist  to  come  to  him  before  win- 
ter ;  leaving  the  churches,  thus  rapidly  organized,  to 
take  care  of  themselves.  It  will  be  seen  that  if  the 
charge  to  Timothy,  to  "  lay  hands  suddenly  on  no 
man,"  was  equally  applicable  to  Titus  (as  doubtless  it 
was),  it  must  have  had  respect  more  to  the  judg- 
ment to  be  exercised  in  the  selection  of  the  presby- 
ters, than  to  haste  in  the  matter  of  time,  as  is  the 
common  opinion. 

Such  appears  to  have  been  the  Apostle  Paul's 
manner  with  all  his  churches.  In  our  undue  esti- 
mate of  the  influence  of  civilization,  as  an  auxiliary 
to  the  gospel  in  sustaining  the  higher  Christian  life 


102  FOEEXGN  MISSIONS. 

among  the  heathen,  and  from  an  overestimate  of 
the  value  of  Roman  civilization  in  the  apostolic  age, 
as  an  auxiliary  to  spiritual  life  in  the  primitive 
churches,  the  apostle's  example  has  by  no  means  had 
its  proper  influence.  We  have  been  slow  to  believe, 
that  native  churches,  or  native  pastors,  with  forms 
of  civilization  so  inferior  to  our  own,  or  so  very  un- 
like it,  could  stand  without  foreign  aid.  Hence  the 
prolonged  existence  of  mission  churches  with  their 
centre  and  seat  at  the  residence  of  the  missionary, 
and  their  membership  spread  over  a  large  surround- 
ing district.  They  often  had  native  preachers,  in- 
deed, stationed  at  some  of  the  more  important  points 
in  the  district,  but  no  native  pastors;  the  whole 
church  membership  being  long  retained  under  the 
pastoral  supervision  of  the  missionary  himself.  It 
is  a  remarkable  fact,  that,  prior  to  1854,  forty  years 
after  the  first  entrance  of  the  American  Board  into 
India,  and  until  the  visit  of  the  Deputation,  not  one 
of  its  missions  in  that  country  had  a  native  pastor. 
Those  missions  had  not  then,  indeed,  even  an  or- 
dained native  preacher.  There  were,  moreover,  only 
a  very  few  native  pastors  at  the  Sandwich  Islands 
previous  to  1863,  more  than  forty  years  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  mission ;  though  they  then  had 
several  ordained  native  missionaries  in  Micronesia 
and  the  Marquesas  Islands.  And  among  the  missions 
of  that  Board  to  the  American  Indians,  there  never 
was  more  than  one  or  two  native  pastors.     How  far 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN  MISSIONS.       103 

there  was  a  similar  experience  in  the  case  of  other 
missionary  societies,  I  am  not  exactly  prepared  to 
say ;  though  I  find  many  proofs  of  the  same  remark- 
able short-coming. 

In  the  providence  of  God,  there  have  been  signal 
rebukes  of  his  people  for  so  unscriptural  a  policy. 
In  1842,  the  French  seized  the  island  of  Tahiti,  and 
sent  the  English  missionaries  away ;  who,  thirty 
years  after  the  conversion  of  the  people  of  that  island, 
had  not  ordained  one  native  pastor.  The  late  em- 
inent Dr.  Tidman,  Foreign  Secretary  of  the  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society,  adverting  to  this  fact  in  a 
speech  at  Liverpool  in  1860,  spoke  as  follows :  — 

"  I  must  be  permitted  to  say  one  word  concerning 
the  Tvative  pastors  of  Tahiti.  Why  did  they  become 
so?  Just  hecause  our  Europeans  were  sent  adrift 
by  French  authority.  They  were  thus  called  forth 
by  the  necessities  of  the  situation.  These  native 
brethren  were  not  ordained  before ;  but  as  soon  as 
they  were  called  to  the  work  in  the  providence  of 
God,  they  proved  quite  equal  to  it.  And  after  twenty 
years  of  French  misrule,  notwithstanding  all  the  in- 
fluences of  Popery  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  brandy 
and  wine  on  the  other,  there  were  now  living  under 
the  instruction  and  influence  of  these  native  pastors 
a  greater  number  of  church-members,  than  they  had 
had  aforetime." 

On  the  same  occasion.  Dr.  Tidman  gave  another 
memorable  illustration  :  "  With  regard  to  Madagas- 


104  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

car/'  he  said,  "  twenty  years  ago  or  more,  the 
European  shepherds  were  all  sent  away,  and  a  few 
poor,  timid  lambs  were  left  in  the  midst  of  wolves. 
And  what  has  been  the  result?  Why  men  [he 
means  native  men]  had  been  raised  up  by  God  to 
take  the  oversight ;  and  instead  of  tens  of  Christians 
under  the  care  of  European  pastors,  there  were  now 
hundreds,  nay  thousands,  under  the  teaching  of  these 
men."  i 

Thus  the  Evangelical  Church  profits  by  its  ex- 
perience, and  there  is  progress.  Local  churches, 
with  a  native  pastorate,  are  now  being  multiplied  in 
the  heathen  world  as  never  before,  after  the  manner 
of  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 

It  may  be  asked  whether  the  missionary,  thus 
giving  place  to  the  native  pastor,  is  to  move  from 
one  station  to  another,  as  did  the  Apostle  Paul.  I 
answer,  by  no  means  to  the  same  extent.  But  if  he 
be  successful  in  gathering  churches,  he  may  find  it 
expedient  occasionally  to  change  his  position,  so  as 
to  throw  the  indispensable  responsibility  on  the  na- 
tive churches  and  pastors.  The  child  will  never 
stand  and  walk  firmly,  if  always  in  leading-strings. 
The  plan  of  the  divine  government  in  the  apostolic 
age,  in  accordance  with  which  the  apostles  acted, 
was  in  some  respects  different  from  what  it  appears 
to  be  now.  They  were  to  plant  churches  only  in  the 
central  points  of  the  Roman  world  ;  they  could  do 
no  more.     But  now,  as  has  been  shown  abundantly, 

1  Conference  an  Missions  at  Liverpool,  1860,  p.  225. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN  MISSIONS.       105 

the  greater  part  of  the  globe,  and  nearly  all  the 
great  nations,  are  open  and  ready  for  us;  and  we  are 
to  go  for  the  early  and  complete  conquest  of  every 
nation,  and  for  remaining  in  our  several  fields  so 
long  as  there  is  appropriate  work  for  us  to  do. 

4.  There  is  still  another  view,  which,  while  it  ac- 
cords with  apostolic  usage,  doubtless  lies  beyond 
what  the  Apostle  Paul  could  have  lived  to  experience. 
I  will  illustrate  it  by  a  reference  to  the  Sandwich 
Islands. 

In  the  year  1847,  twenty-seven  years  after  the 
commencement  of  the  mission  on  those  Islands,  the 
Committee  and  Secretaries  of  the  American  Board 
were  surprised,  and  somewhat  disconcerted,  by  a  dis- 
covery of  what  seemed  like  a  threatened  collapse  of 
the  mission. 

It  appeared  as  if  the  missionary  was  being  absorbed 
in  the  parent,  and  that  the  foreign  laborers  on  those 
Islands  were  all  coming  home  in  a  few  years,  to 
look  after  the  interests  of  their  children.  It  was 
soon  known  that  there  were  a  variety  of  causes  for 
this  result.  One  was  the  reaction  among  mission- 
aries and  people,  consequent  upon  the  great  national 
awakening,  which  had  then  reached  its  crisis.  An- 
other was  the  uncommon  number  of  children  in  the 
missionary  families,  the  climate  being  favorable  to 
their  health  and  life,  and  the  want  of  arrangements 
for  their  education  at  the  Islands ;  which  was  met 


106  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

by  instituting  the  Oahii  College.  But  the  statement 
received  from  the  Islands  went  to  show  still  another 
influential  cause.  This  was  a  deficiency  of  religious 
stimulus,  suited  to  the  sensibilities  and  habits  of  a 
people  so  low  on  the  scale  of  intelligence.  All  the 
Islands  had  been  alike  Christianized.  Had  one  of 
them  remained  under  the  influence  of  savage  pagan- 
ism, as  the  whole  had  been,  —  as,  for  instance,  the 
island  of  Hawaii,  —  then  the  four  Christianized 
islands  might  have  been  roused  to  send  the  gospel 
to  the  seventy-five  thousand  benighted  people  of 
Hawaii;  and  they  would  have  had  an  appropriate 
and  interesting  field  near  by  for  their  Christian 
activities.  Whereas,  there  was  no  such  pagan  island 
within  less  than  two  thousand  miles.  To  be  sure, 
there  was  very  much  of  real  home  missionary  work 
on  each  of  the  Sandwich  Islands.  But  it  was  found 
there,  as  it  has  been  in  our  own  country,  that  the 
motive-power  of  the  home  missionary  plea  alone,  is 
not  of  itself  sufiiciently  awakening  and  powerful.  In 
short,  it  was  painfully  certain,  that  the  infant 
churches  on  those  Islands,  regarded  as  a  whole,  could 
not  be  raised  to  the  level  of  enduring  and  eflPective 
working  churches,  without  a  stronger  religious  in- 
fluence than  could  be  brought  to  act  upon  them  from 
within  their  own  Christianized  islands.  It  was  also 
evident  that  the  missionaries  themselves  then  needed 
an  additional  motive-power,  beyond  what  the  Islands 
any  longer  afforded. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN  MISSIONS.       107 

It  was  precisely  this  discovery  —  for  discovery  it 
was  —  which  gave  rise  to  the  mission  to  Micronesia ; 
a  group  of  islands  two  thousand  miles  westward; 
and  also  to  the  sending  from  this  country,  in  the 
year  1856,  of  the  missionary  packet  "  Morning  Star," 
to  facilitate  the  forming  of  that  mission  ;  and  to  the 
employment  of  native  Hawaiians  as  missionaries  on 
those  islands,  who  should  look  for  their  support  to 
their  own  Hawaiian  churches. 

I  do  not  mean,  that  it  would  have  been  proper 
actually  to  have  left  either  one  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands  in  heathenism  for  such  a  purpose.  I  am 
only  illustrating  a  principle  ;  and  it  is  one  of  high 
practical  importance ;  namely,  that  it  is  impossible 
for  mission  churches  to  reach  their  highest  and 
truest  state,  without  the  aid  of  what  is  to  them  vir- 
tually a  foreign  mission,  —  without  some  outside 
field  of  labor  for  them,  resembling  the  "  hole  of  the 
pit "  from  which  they  had  themselves  been  digged. 

We  have  now  seen  how  foreign  missions  were 
gradually  divested,  first  of  the  grosser  elements  of 
the  world,  and  then  of  the  more  refined  elements ; 
how  they  were  contracted,  simplified,  economized,  and 
brought  more  and  more  to  depend  for  success  on 
the  cross  of  Christ,  and  the  "  Spirit  of  truth."  The 
tendency  has  been  directly,  though  not  rapidly,  to- 
wards the  high  Christian  stand,  which  the  great 
apostle  describes  himself  to  have  held  as  a  mission- 


108  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

ary ;  determining,  with  that  holy  energy  of  purpose 
which  characterized  him,  to  know  nothing  among 
the  heathen,  and  nothing  among  his  converts, "  save 
Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified ;  "  and  not  to  teach 
"  with  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,"  hut  in  the 
power  and  demonstration  of  the  Spirit. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

PBINCIPLES  AND  METHODS   OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 

What  the  Apostolic  Missions  embraced.  — Local  Churches  prominent. 
Nature  of  the  Mission  Church.  —  Missionaries  not  to  be  Pastors. 
The  Missionary  System  built  upon  this  View  of  Native  Churches. 
Education  and  the  Press.  —  English  High  Schools.  —  The  Object 
and  Work  of  the  Poreign  Missionary  not  peculiar.  —  Why  Funds  go 
further  now,  than  formerly. —  Civilization  not  the  Object  of  Foreign 
Missions.  — Preaching  Christ  applicable  to  all  False  Religion. 

I  AM  now  prepared  to  state,  in  a  concise  but  posi- 
tive form,  what  I  believe  to  be  the  true  and  proper 
nature  of  a  mission  among  the  heathen.  The  mis- 
sion of  the  Apostle  Paul,  as  set  forth  in  the  fourth 
chapter,  embraced  the  following  things  :  — 

1.  The  aim  of  the  apostle  was  to  save  the  souls  of 
men. 

2.  The  means  he  employed  for  this  purpose  were 
spiritual ;  namely,  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

3.  The  power  on  which  he  relied  to  give  efficacy 
to  these  means,  was  divine;  namely,  the  promised 
aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

4.  His  success  was  chiefly  in  the  middle  and 
poorer  classes,  —  the  Christian  influence  ascending 
from  thence. 

5.  When  he  had  formed  local  churches,  he  did  not 


110  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

hesitate  to  ordain  presbyters  over  them,  the  best  he 
could  find  ;  and  then  to  throw  upon  the  churches, 
thus  officered,  the  responsibilities  of  self-government, 
self-support,  and  self-propagation.  His  "  presbyters 
in  every  church,"  whatever  their  number  and  other 
duties,  had  doubtless  the  pastoral  care  of  the 
churches. 

Prominent,  then,  among  the  visible  agencies  in 
foreign  missions,  if  we  follow  the  great  apostle,  are 
LOCAL  CHURCHES.  I  Call  them  by  no  denominational 
name.  They  may  be  churches  governed  by  the 
popular  vote,  or  by  elders  they  have  themselves 
chosen  for  the  purpose.  They  are  local  bodies  of 
associated  Christians.  The  first  duty  of  a  mission- 
ary is  to  gather  such  a  church.  That  will  serve  as 
a  nucleus  —  and  it  is  the  only  possible  nucleus,  a 
school  not  being  one  —  of  a  permanent  congrega- 
tion. A  missionary,  by  means  of  properly  located, 
well  organized,  well  trained  churches,  may  extend 
his  influence  over  a  large  territory.  In  such  a 
country  as  India,  or  China,  his  direct  influence  may 
reach  even  scores  of  thousands. 

I  find  nothing  in  the  history  of  the  mission  of  the 
Apostle  Paul,  which  seems  to  me  decisive,  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  these  multiplied  mission  churches 
should  be  brought  into  social  relations  to  each  other, 
and  would  cheerfully  leave  that  to  the  good  sense 
and  piety  of  missionaries  on  the  ground. 

I  now  inquire,  What  should  be  the  nature  of  the 


PBINCIPLES  AND  METHODS  OF  MISSIONS.    Ill 

mission  church?  It  should  he  composed  only  of 
hopeful  converts ;  and  should  have,  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble, a  native  pastor,  and  of  the  same  race,  who  has 
been  trained  cheerfully  to  take  the  oversight  of  what 
will  generally  he  a  small,  poor,  ignorant  people,  and 
mingle  with  them  familiarly  and  sympathetically. 
And  by  a  native  pastor,  I  mean  one  recognized  as 
having  the  pastoral  care  of  a  local  church,  with  the 
right  to  administer  the  ordinances  of  baptism  and 
the  Lord's  Supper. 

This  necessity  of  a  native  pastor  to  the  healthful 
and  complete  development  of  a  self-reliant,  effective 
native  church,  is  a  discovery  of  recent  date.  I  can- 
not say,  nor  is  it  important  to  know,  by  whom  this 
fundamental  truth  or  law  in  missions  was  first  de- 
clared. Like  many  discoveries  in  science,  it  very 
probably  was  reached  by  a  number  of  persons,  at 
nearly  the  same  time,  and  as  the  result  of  a  common 
experience.! 

1  "  It  may  be  said  to  have  been  only  lately  discovered  in  the  science  of 
missions,  that  when  the  missionary  is  of  another  and  superior  race  than 
his  converts,  he  must  not  attempt  to  be  their  pastor ;  though  they  will 
be  bound  to  him  by  personal  attachment,  and  by  a  sense  of  the  benefits 
received  from  him ;  yet  if  he  continues  to  act  as  their  pastor,  they  will 
not  form  a  vigorous  native  church,  but,  as  a  general  rule,  they  will 
remain  in  a  dependent  condition,  and  make  but  little  progress  in 
spiritual  attainments.  The  same  congregation,  under  competent 
native  pastors,  would  become  more  self-reliant,  and  their  religion 
would  be  of  a  more  manly,  home  character."  —  Rev.  Henry  Venn's 
Letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Jamaica,  dated  January,  1867.  Mr.  Venn  is 
Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  no  one  is 
better  informed  on  missionary  subjects. 


112  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

As  soon  as  the  missiou  church  has  a  native  pastor, 
the  responsibilities  of  self-government  should  be  de- 
volved upon  it.  Mistakes,  perplexities,  and  some- 
times scandals,  there  will  be ;  but  it  is  often  thus 
that  useful  experience  is  gained,  even  in  churches 
here  at  home.  The  salary  of  the  native  pastor  should 
be  based  on  the  Christianized  ideas  of  living  acquired 
by  his  people ;  and  the  church  should  become  self- 
supporting  at  the  earliest  possible  day.  It  should 
also  be  self-propagating  from  the  very  first.  Such 
churches,  and  only  such,  are  the  life,  strength,  and 
glory  of  missions. 

A  foreign  missionary  should  not  be  the  pastor  of 
a  native  church.  His  business  is  to  plant  churches, 
in  well-chosen  parts  of  his  field,  committing  them 
as  soon  as  possible  to  the  care  of  native  pastors ; 
himself  sustaining  a  common  relation  to  all,  as  their 
ecclesiastical  father  and  adviser;  having,  in  some 
sense,  like  the  apostle,  the  daily  care  of  the  churches. 
He  might  stand  thus  related  to  a  score  of  churches, 
and  even  more,  however  they  were  related  to  each 
other;  and  when  he  is  old,  might  be  able  to  say, 
through  the  abounding  grace  of  God,  "  Though  ye 
have  ten  thousand  instructors  in  Christ,  yet  have  ye 
not  many  fathers;  for  in  Christ  Jesus  I  have  be- 
gotten you  all  through  the  gospel.  "  ^ 

Self-evident  as  this  idea  of  a  mission  church  may 
seem  on   its   announcement,  it  is  not  yet  adopted 

I  1  Cor.  iv.  15. 


PRINCIPLES  AND  METHODS  OF  MISSIONS.     113 

in  all  Protestant  missions,  and  until  of  late,  has 
seemed  to  gain  ground  very  slowly.  Its  universal 
adoption,  however,  cannot  he  far  distant,  and  will 
add  immensely  hoth  to  the  economy  and  the  power 
of  missions. 

It  is  upon  this  view  of  the  nature  and  relations  of 
native  churches,  that  we  build  our  missionary  sys- 
tem. 

Education,  schools,  the  press,  and  whatever  else 
goes  to  make  up  the  working  system,  are  held  in 
strict  subordination  to  the  planting  and  building 
up  of  effective  working  churches.  But  though  held 
strictly  in  such  subordination,  we  see  in  it  the  utmost 
latitude  for  the  exercise  of  a  wise  discretion  in  the 
conduct  of  missions.  The  governing  object  to  be 
always  aimed  at,  is  self-reliant,  effective  churches,  — 
churches  that  are  purely  native.  Whatever  mis- 
sionaries believe  to  be  most  directly  conducive  to 
this  end,  comes  within  the  scope  of  their  privilege 
and  duty ;  of  course,  under  reasonable  restrictions 
growing  out  of  their  fundamental  relations.  The 
use  of  schools  and  the  press  comes  under  the  ques- 
tion, how  far  they  are  subservient  to  the  great 
end,  namely,  the  rapid  and  perfect  development  of 
churches. 

We  thus  perceive  the  place  which  education  must 
hold  in  missions.  Without  education,  it  is  not 
possible  for  mission  churches  to  be  in  any  proper 


114  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

sense  self-governed ;  nor,  without  it,  will  they  be 
self- supported,  and  much  less  self-propagating.  For 
the  church-members  there  must  be  common  schools. 
This  results  from  the  degraded  mental  condition  of 
the  heathen  world,  as  compared  with  the  field  of  the 
apostolic  missions.  Scarcely  a  ray  of  light  reaches 
it  from  sun,  moon,  or  stars  in  the  intellectual  and 
moral  firmament.  Mind  is  vacant,  crushed,  un- 
thinking, enslaved  to  animal  instincts  and  passions  ; 
earthly,  sensual,  terribly  debased.  The  common 
school,  therefore,  is  a  necessity  among  the  degraded 
heathen,  to  help  elevate  the  converts,  and  make  the 
village  church  an  effective  agency.  And  the  church- 
members,  as  far  as  may  be,  should  be  educated  within 
the  bounds  of  their  own  villages ;  and  in  such  man- 
ner that  a  large  number  of  them  will  abide  with 
their  people,  and  help  to  support  their  native  pastor 
and  schools,  and  make  their  Christian  village  a  power 
in  the  land.  At  first,  these  schools  must  be  sus- 
tained by  the  mission  ;  but  it  is  better  for  them,  not 
long  afterwards,  to  be  sustained  by  the  parents. 

The  native  preachers  and  pastors  come,  almost  of 
course,  from  the  same  depths  of  mental  degrada- 
tion ;  and  since  they  must  be  enabled  to  stand  alone 
and  firmly  in  the  gospel  ministry,  and  be  competent 
spiritual  guides  to  others,  they  should  of  course  have 
a  higher  training.  What  this  shall  be,  what  it  shall 
include  and  exclude,  must  depend  on  circumstances 
too  various  for  general  rules.   But  one  thing  is  clear. 


PRINCiPLES  AND  METHODS  OF  MISSIONS.    115 

Our  army,  liberated  from  the  thralldom  of  pagan 
slavery,  must  be  well  officered  in  order  to  fight 
bravely. 

The  printing-press  in  missions  is  mainly  for  the 
schools  and  for  the  church-members,  to  whom,  in- 
deed, books  are  indispensable.  Experience  tends  to 
the  result  of  having  missions  cease  to  own  printing 
establishments  as  soon  as  the  needful  printing  can 
be  secured  from  presses  owned  by  others. 

Wherein,  then,  do  our  modern  missions  differ  from 
those  of  the  apostolic  age  ?  They  differ  in  several 
particulars. 

1.  Modern  missionaries  are  sent  forth  and  sup- 
ported by  churches  in  their  native  lands ;  by  churches, 
too,  of  long  standing  and  experience ;  and,  so  far  at 
least  as  this  country  and  Great  Britain  are  con- 
cerned, by  churches  existing  and  operating  in  the 
midst  of  freedom  and  high  religious  intelligence. 
In  this  modern  missions  have  certainly  a  great  ad 
vantage  over  the  primitive  missions. 

2.  They  have  not  the  personal  presence  and  ac- 
tive agency  of  apostles ;  but  they  have  the  four 
Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  their  Letters 
of  Instruction,  all  written  under  the  guidance  of  in- 
spiration ;  and  the  press,  to  multiply  copies  of  these 
documents  by  thousands.  A  portion  of  the  modern 
Evangelical  Church,  indeed,  is  coming  into  the  prac- 
tice of  putting  their  missionaries  under  the  control 


116  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

of  missionary  bishops,  and  regards  these  as  successors 
of  the  apostles.  But  they  evidently  are  not  apostles, 
since  they  lack  the  "  signs,  and  wonders,  and  mighty 
deeds,"  which  St.  Paul,  in  his  Second  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  declares  to  be  the  needful  "  signs  of  an 
apostle."  ^ 

3.  The  pastorate  in  modern  missions  differs  from 
that  of  the  apostolic  age,  in  that  it  ordinarily  has 
but  one  pastor  for  each  church ;  whereas  the  New 
Testament  always  uses  the  plural  in  speaking  of  the 
pastorate  in  the  churches  planted  by  the  Apostle 
Paul.  "  They  ordained  presbyters  in  every  church ; " 
being  influenced  in  this,  perhaps  (as  has  been  already 
said),  by  the  usage  of  the  Jewish  synagogue.  This 
practice  seems  to  have  been  lost,  with  the  very  idea 
of  the  apostolic  church,  in  the  great  decline  of  the 
Early  and  Middle  Ages ;  and  when  that  idea  was  re- 
covered, as  it  was  at  the  Reformation,  and  put  in 
practice,  the  usage  of  having  but  one  pastor  in  each 
church  was  adopted  by  all  evangelical  denominations, 
as  being  more  conformed  to  the  demands  of  the  age. 
And  this  is  now  the  general  usage  in  all  the  evan- 
gelical churches  ;  and  it  has  thence  been  transferred 
to  the  mission  churches  among  the  heathen.  The 
apostolic  principle  is  retained,  but  the  form  is 
changed.  I  speak  only  of  the  pastorate,  in  which 
the  evangelical  denominations  agree ;  leaving  en- 
tirely untouched  the  points  concerning  which  the 
evangelical  denominations  differ. 

1  2  Cor.  xii.  12  ;  Rom.  xv.  18, 19. 


PRINCIPLES  AND  METHODS  OF  MISSIONS.    117 

Such  is  the  simple  structure  of  our  foreign  mis- 
sions, as  the  combined  result  of  experience,  and  of 
the  apostolic  example ;  in  all  which  the  grand  object 
is  to  plant  and  multiply  self-reliant,  efficient  churches, 
composed  wholly  of  native  converts,  each  church 
complete  in  itself,  with  pastors  of  the  same  race  with 
the  people.  And  when  the  unevangelized  world  shall 
be  dotted  over  with  such  churches,  so  that  all  men 
have  it  within  their  power  to  learn  what  they  must 
do  to  be  saved,  then  may  we  expect  the  promised 
advent  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  conversion  of  the  world. 

It  might  be  deemed  an  omission  in  my  description 
of  the  missionary  work,  should  I  not  advert  to  a 
series  of  efforts  made  in  the  cities  of  India,  and  more 
especially  in  Calcutta,  to  gain  access  for  the  gospel 
to  the  higher  classes  by  means  of  English  schools. 
In  these  schools  a  large  number  of  high-caste  Hin- 
dus have  received  a  liberal  Christian  education, 
through  the  medium  of  the  English  language  and 
literature.  The  result  of  the  experiment  is  regarded 
as  very  hopeful  by  those  who  are  making  it.  And 
there  is  certainly  a  development  among  the  higher 
class  of  Hindus  in  Calcutta,  and  in  some  other  of 
the  India  cities,  that  is  worthy  of  attentive  consider- 
ation. But  the  results  of  the  experiments  are  not 
yet  sufficiently  developed  to  occupy  a  prominent 
place  in  a  description  of  the  fundamental  nature 
of  the  missionary  work.^ 

1  See  Appendices  III.  and  IV. 


118  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

I  close  with  a  few  g-eneral  remarks. 

1.  The  foreign  missionary,  the  home  missionary, 
and  the  pastor  have  each  substantially  the  same  ob- 
ject. It  is  to  plant  churches,  and  make  them  shine 
as  lights  in  the  world.  Our  leading  sentiment  is 
as  really  applicable  to  home  missionaries,  as  it  is  to 
foreign  missionaries.  The  labors  of  the  home  mis- 
sionary have  a  direct  reference  to  the  forming  of 
self-governed,  self-supported  churches,  and  such 
churches  are  proofs  of  his  success.  The  home  mis- 
sionaiy  becomes  then  a  pastor,  or  gives  place  to  one 
sustaining  that  relation. 

2.  The  great  simplification  in  the  use  of  means, 
and  relying  more  on  those  which  are  spiritual,  is  a 
principal  reason  why  a  given  amount  of  funds  now 
sustains  a  more  extended  working  mission  than  it 
formerly  did.  The  grand  object  and  means  are  the 
same ;  but  the  working  process,  becoming  more 
spiritual,  bears  more  effectively  on  the  heart  and 
conscience. 

3.  The  proper  test  of  success  in  missions,  is  not 
the  progress  of  civilization,  but  the  evidence  of  a 
religious  life. 

4.  The  gospel  is  applicable  equally  to  all  false 
religions.  Generically  considered,  there  can  be  but 
two  religions :  the  one  looking  for  salvation  by 
grace ;  the  other,  by  worTcs.  The  principle  of  evil 
in  all  unbelieving  men,  is  the  same.  The  refuges 
of  lies  in  Popery,  in  Judaism,  in  Mohammedanism, 


PRINCIPLES  AND  METHODS  OF  MISSIONS.    119 

in  Brahminism,  Buddhism,  and  every  form  of  pagan- 
ism, are  wonderfully  alike.  There  is  one  disease, 
and  one  remedy.  Before  the  gospel,  the  unbeliev- 
ing world  stands  an  undistinguished  mass  of  re- 
bellious sinners;  unwilling  that  God  should  reign 
over  them,  unwilling  to  be  saved  except  by  their 
own  works,  and  averse  to  all  real  holiness  of  heart 
and  life.  There  is  power  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
cross,  through  grace,  to  overcome  this.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  cross — as  will  more  clearly  appear 
when  we  come  to  the  evidences  of  success  in  mis- 
sions —  is  the  grand  instrument  of  conquest.  Not 
one  of  the  great  superstitions  of  the  world  could 
hold  a  governing  place  in  the  human  soul,  after  the 
conviction  has  once  been  thoroughly  produced,  that 
there  is  salvation  only  in  Christ.  Be  it  what  it  may, 
the  man,  thus  convinced,  would  flee  from  it,  as  he 
would  from  a  falling  building  in  the  rockings  of  an 
earthquake. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

VALUE    OF    NATIVE    CHURCHES. 

To  be  illustrated  by  Native  Converts,  and  tbe  Native  Ministry. 
Value  of  Native  Converts  :  in  Sierra  Leone ;  in  Madagascar ;  in 
India ;  in  Western  Asia.  —  Value  of  the  Native  Ministry :  among 
the  Karens ;  among  the  §hanars ;  in  the  Sandwich  Islands ;  in 
the  Islands  of  the  South  Pacific.  —  How  far  Native  Churches  are 
dependent  on  the  Presence  of  Missionaries.  —  How  far  Revivals  of 
Religion  are  common  in  them.  —  The  Prospect. 

It  was  stated  in  the  last  chapter,  that  the  grand 
object  of  foreign  missions  is  to  plant  and  multiply 
churches,  composed  of  native  converts ;  each  church 
complete  in  itself,  with  presbyters  of  the  same  race, 
left  to  determine  their  ecclesiastical  relations  for 
themselves,  with  the  aid  of  judicious  advice  from 
their  missionary  fathers. 

The  value  of  native  churches  must  be  learned  by 
an  estimate  of  the  value  of  native  converts,  and  of 
the  native  ministry.  And  should  it  be  thought  that 
I  produce  the  richest  specimens  from  our  golden 
mines,  it  should  be  remembered  that  such  specimens 
best  illustrate  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  extend- 
ing Messiah's  kingdom.  They  will  best  show  what 
can  and  m.ust  be  done  before  the  glorious  reign  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  extends  over  all  nations. 


VALUE  OF  NATIVE   CHURCHES.  121 

In  estimating  the  value  of  native  converts,  I  begin 
with  Western  Africa.  The  oldest  mission  on  the 
West  African  coast  is  that  of  the  English  Church 
Missionary  Society  at  Sierra  Leone.  Here,  in  the 
early  stage  of  that  mission,  we  shall  find  a  native 
church  of  marvelous  interest  and  power,  gathered 
out  of  the  most  unpromising  materials,  in  circum- 
stances the  most  unpropitious. 

It  is  fifty  years  since  a  plain  German  laborer  in 
London,  named  William  A.  B.  Johnson,  offered  him- 
self to  the  Church  Missionary  Society  to  be  sent  as  a 
school-master  to  Sierra  Leone.  He  had  only  a  com- 
mon school  education,  but  was  rich  in  Christian  ex- 
perience. It  soon  appeared  that  he  was  called  of 
God  to  the  gospel  ministry,  and  he  accordingly 
received  ordination  in  Africa.  His  was  a  wonderful 
ministry.  When  Mr.  Johnson  first  took  up  his 
abode  at  what  was  afterwards  called  Regent's  Town, 
in  Sierra  Leone,  the  people  numbered  about  a  thou- 
sand. They  had  been  taken  at  different  times  from 
the  holds  of  slave-ships  ;  were  wild  and  naked ;  and 
being  from  twenty-two  different  nations,  were  hostile 
to  each  other.  They  had  no  common  medium  of 
intercourse,  except  a  little  broken  English,  had  no 
ideas  of  marriage,  and  lived  crowded  together  in  the 
rudest  huts.  They  were  devil-worshippers,  and  most 
of  them  lazy,  thieving,  plundering,  brutal  savages. 

Mr.  Johnson  was  at  first  exceedingly  discouraged. 
But  he  resolved  to  preach  Christ  to  them  as  the 


122  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

Saviour  of  sinners,  in  the  simple  manner  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  to  open  to  them  the  raiserahle  state  of  a 
sinner  rejecting  such  a  Saviour.  His  resolution  was 
the  same  with  that  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  when  he 
surveyed  the  desperate  pollutions  of  the  Corinthians, 
—  "  to  know  nothing  among  them,  save  Jesus  Christ 
and  him  crucified."  There  is  no  other  adequate 
power  of  deliverance.  After  pursuing  this  course 
the  greater  part  of  a  year,  preaching  salvation 
through  the  Lord  Jesus,  a  remarkable  change  began 
to  come  over  the  people.  Old  and  young  became 
concerned  for  their  souls.  There  was,  in  short,  an 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit.  Many  sought  retirement 
in  the  woods  for  prayer ;  and  soon  the  neighboring 
mountains  echoed,  in  moonlight  evenings,  with  the 
hymns  of  worshippers.  Mr.  Johnson  has  left  a 
record  of  the  experience  of  many  of  the  converts, 
in  their  own  simple  and  broken,  but  expressive  lan- 
guage, when  examined,  as  they  all  were,  for  admis- 
sion to  the  Lord's  Supper.  I  am  impressed  by  his 
record  of  their  convictions  of  sin  ;  their  acknowl- 
edgments of  the  divine  forbearance;  their  distrust 
of  their  own  hearts ;  their  inward  conflicts ;  their 
tender  consciences ;  their  faith  and  patience ;  their 
benevolence  ;  and  their  love  for  souls.  The  outward 
changes  were  most  striking.  The  people  learned 
trades,  became  farmers,  attached  well-kept  gardens 
to  their  dwellings.  They  built  a  stone  church  large 
enough,  with  the  help  of  galleries,  to  seat  closely 


VALUE  OF  NATIVE   CHURCHES.  123 

nearly  two  thousand  persons ;  which  was  regularly 
filled  with  decently  dressed,  orderly,  and  serious 
worshippers.  They  built  a  parsonage,  school-houses, 
store-houses,  a  bridge  of  several  arches  —  all  of 
stone.  Most  of  the  adult  population  were  mar- 
ried. Their  night-dances  and  heathenish  drumming 
ceased,  and  so  did  their  oaths,  drunkenness,  and 
stealing ;  and  the  schools  contained  a  thousand  chil- 
dren.^ 

All  this  Mr.  Johnson  lived  to  see ;  but  he  died  in 
1823,  only  seven  years  from  the  commencement  of 
his  mission!  Was  there  ever  a  more  wonderful 
religious  change  ?  It  shows  the  power  of  the  sim- 
ple gospel,  both  to  convert  the  savage,  and  to  civilize 
him.  It  shows  the  power  of  the  cross  of  Christ.  It 
shows,  also,  the  illuminating,  reforming  influence  of 
such  a  church,  regarded  as  a  missionary  agency. 
Would  that  the  same  influences  could  have  been 
continued  in  all  their  power.  But  this  was  more 
than  forty  years  ago,  and  it  was  then  too  early  for 
native  pastors;  their  necessity  to  the  full  develop- 
ment of  a  native  church  not  having  then  been  dis- 
covered.     A  worthy   missionary   successor  to   Mr. 

1  See  Memoir  of  Rev.  W.  A.  B.  Johnson,  London,  1852,  Preface, 
and  pp.  168,  169,  245,  275,  279,  283,  299,  305,  419,  423,  424,  426. 
Also,  London  Missionary  Register  for  1819,  pp.  5,  378-381,  486-492  ; 
and  for  1829,  pp.  18,  107-113,  197,  252-256,  371.  Also,  and  espe- 
cially. Twentieth  Report  of  the-  Church  Missionary  Society;  extracts 
from  which  are  embodied  in  Missionary  Register  for  1820,  pp.  473- 
476. 


124  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

Johnson  was  not  soon  found,  and  Regent's  Town 
suffered  a  decline  after  his  death.  But  the  founda- 
tions he  had  laid  were  sure^  and  there  was  progress 
on  the  whole.  In  the  year  1842,  twenty-four  years 
after  Mr.  Johnson  hegan  his  mission,  one  fifth  of 
the  population  of  Sierra  Leone  was  at  school,  and 
the  attendance  at  puhlic  worship  was  estimated  at 
twelve  thousand.  In  1862,  native  pastorates  were 
estahlished,  and  ten  parishes  undertook  the  support 
of  their  own  pastors ;  and  no  less  than  six  different 
missions  were  sent  hy  the  people  to  the  unevangel- 
ized  tribes  beyond  the  colony.  The  present  number 
of  nominal  Christians  in  the  colony,  is  said,  on  high 
authority,  to  be  eighty  thousand,  of  whom  twenty 
thousand  are  communicants;  and  the  missionary 
work  at  Sierra  Leone  is  regarded  as  having  been 
accomplished.^ 

I  venture  to  say,  to  the  glory  of  God  in  the  gos- 
pel, that  not  one  of  the  "  seven  churches  of  Asia " 
shone  with  a  brighter  light,  than  did  this  one,  at 
that  time,  gathered  from  the  slave-ships  of  Western 
Africa.  And  were  such  churches  now  along  the 
whole  extent  of  that  coast,  and  in  the  vast  interior, 
the  darkness,  crime,  and  misery  of  that  benighted 
region  would  give  place  to  the  blessedness  of  a 
Christian  civilization. 

Look,  next,  at  the  great*  island  of  Madagascar, 

1  Church  Missionary  Intelligencer,  1868,  pp.  203,  250. 


VALUE  OF  NATIVE   CHURCHES.  125 

situated  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa.  Here  we 
shall  see,  as  of  old,  infant  churches  struggling  suc- 
cessfully against  the  utmost  efforts  of  the  civil 
power  to  destroy  them.  The  London  Missionary 
Society  commenced  a  mission  on  that  island  in  1820, 
under  the  protection  of  the  King  Radama.  The 
missionaries  gave  the  people  a  written  language,  a 
grammar  and  dictionary,  school  hooks,  a  hymn-book, 
and  the  Bible,  and  taught  some  thousands  to  read 
the  Scriptures.^  The  converts  were  virtually,  if  not 
formally,  embodied  in  churches.  A  pagan  queen, 
the  widow  of  Radama,  succeeded  her  husband  in 
1828,  and,  being  hostile  to  the  Christian  religion, 
forbade  the  observance  of  its  ordinances,  and  the 
reading  of  the  Bible  ;  and  persistence  in  either  was 
punishable  with  death.  Perceiving  that  the  gospel 
continued  to  gain  ground,  notwithstanding  her  de- 
cree, she,  in  1835,  banished  all  the  missionaries. 
The  Christians,  still  increasing,  were  then  sub- 
jected to  fierce  persecution,  which  continued  through 
twenty-five  years,  until  her  death  in  1861.  They 
were  poisoned ;  they  were  hanged ;  they  were  speared ; 
they  were  stoned,  and  the  stoning  was  a  most  bar- 
barous mode  of  execution.  They  were  thrown  down 
a  fatal  precipice.  Loaded  with  heavy  iron  collars, 
and  chained  together,  they  were  driven  into  banish- 
ment. They  were  burned  at  the  stake,  and  some 
were  crucified.     Many  were  sold   into  slavery.     It 

1  Ellis's  Madagascar  Revisited,  p.  2. 


126  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

is  believed  that  more  than  two  thousand  persons 
suffered  as  Christians,  during  this  persecution,  in 
some  cruel  form  or  other. 

So  far  as  was  possible  they  associated  together  as 
Christian  communities;  and  there  were  those  of 
their  number  intelligent  and  courageous  enough  to 
act  as  pastors  and  teachers,  though  always  at  the 
peril,  and  sometimes  at  the  sacrifice,  of  life.  The 
result  was  a  continual  growth  in  numbers  through 
all  the  persecutions. 

The  queen  was  succeeded  by  her  son  ;  who  favored 
the  Christians,  and  invited  the  return  of  the  mis- 
sionaries. This  was  seven  years  ago ;  and  now,  as 
we  have  the  account  from  the  well-known  Dr.  William 
Ellis,  in  his  work  recently  published,  entitled  "  Mad- 
agascar Revisited,"  dedicated  by  permission  to  the 
Queen  of  England,  and  from  other  sources,  there 
are,  within  and  around  the  capital  of  Madagascar, 
ninety  churches,  with  more  than  five  thousand  mem- 
bers; one  hundred  and  one  native  pastors;  and 
twenty  thousand  claiming  the  Christian  name.  In 
the  space  of  four  years,  the  number  of  nominal 
Christians  was  more  than  doubled,  and  the  number 
of  the  communicants  was  increased  tenfold.^  And 
we  hear  that  a  queen,  lately  come  to  the  throne, 
has  virtually  embraced  the  Christian  religion,  and 
that,  if  she  should  live,  we  may  expect  Christianity 
to  be  soon  adopted  as  the  national  religion. 

1  Ellis's  Madagascar  Revisited,  pp.  469,  501. 


VALUE  OF  NATIVE   CHURCHES.  127 

We  may  read  the  history  of  Roman  persecutions 
from  Nero  down,  and  we  shall  find  none  more  cruel 
than  the  one  in  Madagascar,  and  none  more  dis- 
tinguished for  the  inflexible  firmness  of  its  martyrs  ; 
upon  whojn,  it  should  he  remembered,  the  fiery  tem- 
pest burst  in  the  very  infancy  of  their  religious  life. 
Nor  should  we  forget  that  these  heroic  martyrs 
belonged  to  the  negro  race. 

Another  case  illustrating  the  same  thing,  but 
bearing  on  a  more  numerous  people,  is  the  remark- 
able steadfastness  of  native  Christians  in  the  great 
India  rebellion  of  1857.  This  was  wholly  unex- 
pected. The  native  Christians  at  the  twenty  mis- 
sionary stations  which  were  swept  away  in  that 
terrible  mutiny  of  the  native  army,  exceeded  two 
thousand  in  number.  A  very  large  portion  of  these 
were  compelled,  as  Christians,  to  flee  for  their  lives. 
They  were  beaten,  their  houses  were  plundered,  and 
eleven  of  them  suffered  death.  Everywhere  Mos- 
lems or  Hindus  urged  them  to  apostatize,  and 
threatened  and  persecuted  them  ;  but  they  were  firm 
to  their  Christian  profession.  Of  the  whole  num- 
ber only  six  yielded,  and  these  returned  as  soon  as 
the  rebellion  ceased.^  Dr.  Mullens,  long  time  a 
leading  missionary  at  Calcutta,  and  now  the  able 
Foreign  Secretary  of  the  London  Missionary  So- 
ciety, wrote  thus,  while  in  India,  concerning  these 
native  Christians :  — 

1  Mullens'  Ten  Years  in  India,  p.  24. 


128  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

"  Drawn,  to  a  very  large  extent,"  lie  says,  "  from 
the  artificial  hot-house  system' of  orphan  and  hoard- 
ing schools ;  helped  from  first  to  last  by  mission- 
aries ;  not  only  fed  and  taught,  hut  in  a  measure 
having  employments  created  for  them ;  ^tlie  com- 
munity, as  a  whole,  had  grown  up  in  the  possession 
of  sound  principles,  hut  weak  in  character,  with  little 
self-reliance,  and  a  great  deal  of  the  petulance  of 
spoiled  children.  The  mutiny  has  driven  all  this 
away ;  and  they  who  were  thrown  headlong  into 
the  troubled  waters,  and  had  to  swim  for  their  lives, 
without  the  aid  of  the  corks  and.  bladders  on  which 
they  had  relied,  gained  health  and  vigor  in  the  pro- 
cess, and  landed,  not  only  alive,  but  men.  The  old 
system  has  been  flung  away  forever."  ^ 

We  see  in  these  converts  the  nature  of  the  ma- 
terials for  Hindu  churches.  Indeed  the  examples 
thus  far  adduced  go  to  show,  that  the  mission 
churches  of  our  times  are  formed  of  the  same  ma- 
terial with  the  churches  of  the  apostolic  and  martyr 
ages,  and  have,  through  the  grace  of  God,  the  same 
power  of  endurance. 

Let  us  next  see  what  manner  of  converts,  through 
divine  grace,  are  produced  in  Eastern  Turkey.  It 
is  true,  that  the  churches  in  that  empire  are  not 
composed  of  converts  from  heathenism ;  but  then 
the  knowledge  of  the  w  ay  of  salvation  through  faith 

1  Mullens'  Ten  Years  in  India,  p.  25. 


-       VALUE   OF  NATIVE   CHURCHES.  129 

iu  Christ  had  perished  from  among  them,  and  they 
stood,  in  that  respect,  very  much  on  a  level  with 
Mohammedans  and  Pagans. 

At  Harpoot,  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Euphrates, 
the  mission  of  the  American  Board  formed  a  station 
in  1856 ;  and  eleven  or  twelve  years  ago,  a  church 
was  gathered  there,  which,  after  two  years,  received 
a  native  pastor,  and  at  once  guaranteed  a  portion  of 
his  salary,  and  doubled  the  amount  in  the  next  year. 
A  training-school  for  the  native  ministry  was  opened  ; 
and  of  the  eighteen  young  men  in  the  first  class  sent 
forth  from  that  school  in  the  year  1864,  eight  were 
licensed  to  preach  the  gospel,  and  most  of  the  others 
occupied  out-stations  as  catechists  and  teachers. 
Churches  were  soon  formed  in  the  villages,  to  which 
these  native  preachers  were  sent,  which  showed 
great  readiness  to  support  their  pastors  and  preach- 
ers. As  soon  as  a  village  became  interested  in  the 
truth,  it  earnestly  desired  a  native  pastor  of  its  own, 
and  was  easily  pleased  with  him,  and  opposed  to  a 
change. 

You  will  bear  in  mind,  that  Harpoot  is  only  one ' 
of  the  five  stations  composing  what  is  called  the 
Eastern  Turkey  mission ;  and  I  have  selected  it  to 
show  how,  in  the  use  of  appropriate  means,  with  the 
divine  blessing,  a  mission  church  may  become  as 
leaven  thrown  into  the  lump,  and  how  its  offshoots, 
developing  into  other  churches,  and  they  becoming 
the  nuclei  of  congregations,  grow  and  multiply  until 


130  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

they  fill  the  land.  At  the  end  of  eleven  years 
from  the  commencement  of  that  church,  the  work 
had  so  extended,  that  there  were  connected  with 
it  thirteen  churches ;  four  hundred  and  eighteen 
church-memhers ;  eleven  native  pastors,  more  than 
half  of  them  supported  by  their  own  people  ;  twelve 
licensed  native  preachers ;  twenty-one  native  teachers, 
and  forty-one  other  helpers.  The  people  were  very 
poor ;  but,  as  in  the  Macedonian  church  of  old,  "  their 
deep  poverty  abounded  unto  the  riches  of  their 
liberality."  Of  pupils  there  were  two  thousand  and 
forty-one ;  and  scores  of  unpaid  laborers  went  spon- 
taneously forth  every  Sabbath-day,  as  missionaries 
into  the  harvest  fields  around.  This  was  the  growth 
of  a  single  missionary  station,  and  of  a  single  church, 
in  less  than  twelve  years.^ 

The  missionary  stations  at  Aintab  and  Marash,  in 
the  Central  Turkey  mission,  are  illustrations  of  the 
speedy  gathering  of  large  mission  churches  and 
congregations.  It  lately  became  necessary  to  divide 
the  churches  at  each  of  those  stations,  and  the  num- 
*ber  of  members  in  each  of  the  four  churches,  thus 
constituted,  was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty,  with 
congregations  of  from  six  to  eight  hundred.  It 
is  not  twenty  years  since  the  first  missionary  sent  to 
Aintab  was  stoned  and  driven  away  by  the  people. 
Eight  years  after  that  time,  visiting  Aintab,  I  was 

1  See  Ten  Years  on  the  Euphrates,  and  Letters  from  Eden,  by  Rev.  G. 
H.  Wheeler. 


VALUE  OF  NATIVE   CHURCHES.  131 

myself  met  by  a  cavalcade  of  Christian  men,  several 
miles  from  Aintab,  who  escorted  me  into  the  very 
heart  of  the  city,  and  I  saw  nowhere  among  the 
people  so  much  as  a  look  of  disapprobation.  It  is 
only  twelve  years  since  a  missionary  station  was 
begun  at  Marash ;  but  it  was  not  effected  until  the 
messengers  of  the  gospel  had  been  driven  repeatedly 
away  by  violence.  Yet,  in  1861,  the  late  Dr.  Dwight 
from  Constantinople,  being  in  Marash  at  a  com- 
munion season,  had  the  joy  of  addressing  an  orderly 
assembly  of  twelve  hundred  people. 

Time  would  fail  me  to  speak  of  the  growth  and 
value  of  churches  elsewhere.  Enough  has  been  ad- 
duced to  show,  that  the  chief  work  of  evangelical 
Christendom  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  world, 
is  to  plant  churches,  instinct  with  gospel  life,  in  all 
the  central  and  influential  districts  of  the  unevan- 
gelized  land. 

I  next  illustrate  the  value  of  the  Tiative  ministry. 
This  also  I  do  by  adducing  some  of  the  more  re- 
markable cases. 

The  first  is  that  of  a  Karen  preacher,  pastor,  and 
missionary,  named  Quala  (or  Sau  Quala),  a  convert 
of  the  Baptist  mission  in  Burmah.  Quala  signifies 
"  Hope,"  and  the  name  was  given  him  by  his  parents 
because  of  hoped-for  relief  from  Burmese  oppres- 
sion, awakened  by  the  entrance  of  British  ships  into 
Burman  ports  at  the  time  of  his  birth ;  but  it  was 


132  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

not  till  the  boy  was  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  old,  that 
the  British  took  actual  possession  of  Tavoy.  Three 
yeai's  after  this,  the  first  Karen  convert  was  bap- 
tized by  Dr.  Judson,  and  began  immediately  to 
preach,  and  the  first  sermon  of  this  convert  was  in 
the  house  of  Quala's  father.  That  sermon  was 
blessed  to  the  inquiring  youth,  who  was  received 
into  the  church  in  the  year  1830,  thirty-eight  years 
ago. 

As  with  so  many  of  his  countrymen,  so  with  him ; 
the  first  impulse  of  his  spiritual  life  was  "  to  declare 
what  God  had  done  for  his  soul,  and  to  invite  all 
whom  he  could  reach  to  believe  and  live."  His 
father  was  an  unbeliever  almost  to  the  day  of  his 
death ;  but  his  mother  is  said  to  have  been  a  "  lovely 
picture,"  when  sitting  under  the  sound  of  the  gos- 
pel, with  large  beaming  eyes,  full  of  intelligence, 
fixed  on  the  speaker.^  Quala  resembled  his  mother. 
He  was  employed  some  years  by  the  missionaries  in 
assisting  to  translate  the  New  Testament  into  the 
Karen  language.  For  fifteen  years  he  accompanied 
the  missionary  in  his  jungle-tours  in  Tavoy  and  Mer- 
gui,  tours  sometimes  extended  three  or  four  hundred 
miles;  and  they  together  laid  the  foundations  in 
those  regions  of  many  Karen  churches.  Thus  was 
this  young  servant  of  the  Lord  prepared  for  more 
responsible  service. 

It  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  excessive  cau- 

1  Gospd  in  Burmah,  p.  215. 


VALUE  OF  NATIVE   CHURCHES.  133 

tion  of  early  missionaries  in  putting  native  converts 
into  the  ministry,  that  Quala  did  not  receive  ordina- 
tion until  fourteen  years  after  his  reception  into  the 
church.^  Some  time  after  this,  he  felt  strongly 
moved  to  enter  on  what  proved  to  be  the  great 
work  of  his  life,  a  mission  to  the  Karens  in  the 
province  of  Toungoo.  This  was  a  great  trial  to 
the  churches  in  Tavoy  and  Mergui,  all  of  which 
joined  in  a  written  remonstrance  to  the  missiona- 
ries against  his  leaving  them.  It  was  like  our 
sending  to  the  heathen  our  most  useful,  learned, 
and  valued  pastors  and  ministers.  But  it  was  de- 
cided to  be  his  duty  to  go,  as  may  yet  perhaps  be 
true  of  some  such  men  among  ourselves.  Quala 
reached  Toungoo  in  December,  1853,  the  year  after 
that  province,  by  the  annexation  of  Pegu,  came 
under  the  protection  of  English  law.  The  first 
baptism  he  performed  was  in  the  following  January. 
Before  the  close  of  that  year,  the  number  of  con- 
verts connected  with  his  labors  was  seven  hundred 
and  forty-one,  who  were  associated  in  nine  churches. 
In  less  than  three  years,  the  number  of  churches 
was  increased  under  his  ministry  to  thirty,  with  an 
aggregate  of  two  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  members,  more  than  two  thousand  of  whom 
were  baptized  by  Quala  himself.^     Nor  do  those  con- 

1  Gospd  in  Burmah,  p.  231,  236. 

2  Gospel  in  Burmah,  p.  241 ;  also,  Reports  of  the  American  Baptist 
Union  for  1856,  pp.  72,  76;  and  for  1855,  p.  86. 


134  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

verts  appear  to  have  been  admitted  to  the  church 
without  due  consideration.  His  labors  and  fatigue 
were  truly  apostolical,  and  such  was  his  success. 
His  singleness  of  purpose  was  like  that  of  the  Apos- 
tle Paul.  He  received  no  salary  in  Toungoo,  and, 
being  constantly  on  the  move,  he  found  it  necessary, 
for  two  years,  to  leave  his  lovely  wife  in  Tavoy,  who 
is  represented  as  "the  flower  of  the  jungle."  One 
and  another  of  the  native  disciples  gave  him  a  gar- 
ment when  he  needed  it,  and,  having  no  house,  he 
got  his  food  where  he  labored. 

The  wild  mountain  Karens,  in  "  regions  beyond," 
sent  a  petition,  that  he  would  come  and  tell  them  of 
the  "Eternal  God."  The  English  Commissioner, 
hearing  of  this,  offered  Quala  a  salary  from  the  Eng- 
lish government,  if  he  would  become  the  head  and 
overseer  of  that  wild  tribe.  Quala  gives  this  very 
touching  account  of  his  conference  with  the  Com- 
missioner. His  reply  was :  "  Sir,  I  cannot  do  it.  I 
will  not  have  the  money.  I  will  not  mix  up  God's 
work  with  government  work.  There  are  others  to 
do  this  thing.  Employ  them.  As  for  me,  I  will  con- 
tinue the  work  in  which  I  hav  e  been  engaged."  The 
Commissioner  asked,  "  Where  do  you  obtain  money 
to  live  on  ?  Why  do  you  not  like  money  ?  We  will 
give  you  money,  and  you  may  continue  your  work  as 
teacher  as  heretofore.  Will  it  not  make  it  easier  for 
you  P  "  He  answered,  "  No,  sir ;  when  I  eat  with  the 
children   of   poverty,  my  heart   sleeps.     I   did   not 


VALUE   OF  NATIVE  CHURCHES.  135 

leave  my  dear  wife,  and  come  up  hither  in  search  of 
silver,  or  agreeable  food.  I  came  to  this  land  that 
its  poor  people  might  be  saved.  Be  patient  with 
me,  sir.  Were  I  to  take  your  money,  the  wild  Ka- 
rens would  turn  against  me."  Admirable  man ! 
Where  shall  we  find  his  equal  in  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  Christ? 

This  servant  of  God  is  still  living,  and  his  char- 
acter shines,  in  a  venerable  old  age.^  Though  he 
stands  out  preeminently  above  his  brethren  in  the 
native  Karen  ministry,  we  still  recognize  him  as  a 
Karen,  and  as  owing  all  that  he  was  and  is  to  the 
grace  of  God,  who  can  easily  raise  up  many  such 
apostolic  men  from  among  heathen  converts. 

Many  of  the  older  missions  in  other  heathen  coun- 
tries have  also  had  native  ministers  of  distinguished 
ability  and  usefulness,  but  I  shall  specify  only  two 
more. 

The  Rev.  John  Thomas,  a  distinguished  mission- 
ary of  the  English  Church  Missionary  Society  in 
Southern  India,  having  the  care  of  ten  thousand 
native  Christians,  speaks  thus  of  a  native  preacher 
among  the  Shanars  :  "  Without  any  exception,  he  is 
the  most  able  and  eloquent  native  preacher  of  the 
gospel  now  in  India."  "  I  have  no  hesitation,"  Mr. 
Thomas  adds,  "  in  saying,  that  if  such  sermons  as 

1  In  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Union  for  1864,  he 
is  called  "  the  Prince  of  Preachers." 


136  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

are  generally  preached  by  him,  were  delivered  in  any 
pulpit  in  London,  the  church  would  be  crowded  to 
overflowing.  Nor  am  I  singular  in  this  opinion,  for 
several  of  my  brother  missionaries,  after  hearing 
him,  have  expressed  themselves  in  terms  of  the 
highest  admiration  of  his  pulpit  abilities.  The  peo- 
ple, also,  everywhere,  listen  to  him  with  great  atten- 
tion and  delight." 

In  1860,  death  deprived  Mr.  Thomas  of  this  be- 
loved native  co-laborer,  and  the  missionary  thus  tes- 
tifies to  his  worth :  "  His  affection,  his  simplicity, 
honesty,  and  straightforwardness,  his  amazing  pulpit 
talents,  and  profound  humility,  endeared  him  to  me 
more  than  I  can  describe.  The  last  sermon  I  heard 
from  him  was,  without  exception,  the  greatest  ser- 
mon I  ever  heard.  The  text  was,  '  Enduring  the 
cross,  despising  the  shame.'  Never  did  I  hear 
Christ  so  exalted  by  human  tongue.  The  effect  was 
perfectly  overwhelming." 

My  third  specimen  is  Bartimeus,  an  eloquent 
blind  native  preacher  at  the  Sandwich  Islands. 
From  the  lowest  physical,  intellectual,  moral,  and 
social  degradation  and  wretchedness,  in  his  state  of 
heathenism,  Bartimeus  (so  named  at  his  baptism) 
gradually  rose,  under  the  new-creating  power  of  the 
gospel,  to  be  a  devoted,  active,  eloquent,  and  success- 
ful minister  of  the  Word.  The  late  Dr.  Armstrong, 
a  judicious  and  able  missionary,  who  was  with  him 


VALUE  OF  NATIVE  CHURCHES.  137 

five  years,  speaks  thus  of  him :  "  He  is  a  short  man, 
and  rather  corpulent,  very  inferior  in  appearance 
when  sitting,  hut  when  he  rises  to  speak  he  looks 
well,  stands  erect,  gesticulates  with  freedom,  and 
pours  forth,  as  he  becomes  animated,  words  in  tor- 
rents. He  is  perfectly  familiar  with  the  former  as 
well  as  the  present  modes  of  thinking  of  the  island- 
ers, which  gives  him  a  power  in  comparisons,  allu- 
sions, and  direct  appeals,  which  no  foreigner  will 
ever  possess.  Often,  while  listening  with  exquisite 
delight  to  his  eloquent  strains,  have  I  thought  of 
Wii*t's  description  of  the  celebrated  blind  preacher 
of  Virginia." 

Bartimeus  died  in  the  autumn  of  1843.  "His 
funeral,"  says  the  Rev.  E.  W.  Clark,  one  of  the 
older  members  of  the  mission,  "  was  attended  by 
a  large  congregation  of  sincere  mourners.  The 
voice  which  had  so  often  been  heard  among  us  in 
devout  supplication,  and  in  earnest  entreaty,  calling 
the  sinner  to  repentance,  was  silent  in  death.  His 
purified  spirit,  raised  from  the  darkest  heathenism, 
by  the  blessing  of  God  on  missionary  labor,  was  at 
peace  with  the  Saviour." 

His  calling  to  be  a  preacher  was  evidently  of 
God.  He  had  original  endowments  for  that  ser- 
vice. He  had  great  strength  of  memory,  and  there 
has  already  been  a  reference  to  his  eloquence.  An 
illustration  of  both  is  given  by  Mr.  Clark,  writing 
from  Wailuku  soon  after  his  decease. 


138  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

"  In  January  last,  I  met  him  at  a  protracted  meet- 
ing, and  was  then  more  than  ever  impressed  with 
the  extent  and  accuracy  of  his  knowledge  of  the 
Scriptures.  He  was  called  upon  to  preach  at  an 
evening  meeting.  His  heart  was  glowing  with  love 
for  souls.  The  overwhelming  destruction  of  the  im- 
penitent seemed  to  he  pressing  with  great  weight 
upon  his  mind ;  and  this  he  took  for  the  suhject  of 
his  discourse  at  the  evening  meeting.  He  chose  for 
the  foundation  of  his  remarks,  Jer.  iv.  13 :  '  Behold, 
he  shall  come  up  as  clouds,  and  his  chariots  shall  be 
as  a  whirlwind.'  The  anger  of  the  Lord  against  the 
wicked,  and  the  terrible  overthrow  of  all  his  ene- 
mies, were  portrayed  in  vivid  colors.  He  seized 
upon  the  terrific  image  of  a  whirlwind  or  tornado 
as  an  emblem  of  the  ruin  which  God  would  bring 
upon  his  enemies.  This  image  he  presented  in  all 
its  majestic  and  awful  aspects,  enforcing  his  remarks 
with  such  passages  as  Ps.  Iviii.  9  :  '  He  shall  take 
them  away  as  with  a  whirlwind,  both  living,  and  in 
his  wrath;'  Prov.  i.  27:  'And  your  destruction 
cometh  as  a  whirlwind ; '  Isa.  xl.  24 :  '  And  the 
whirlwind  shall  take  them  away  as  stubble ; '  Jer. 
XXX.  23  :  '  Behold,  the  whirlwind  of  the  Lord  goetli 
forth  with  fury,  a  continuing  whirlwind ;  it  shall  fall 
with  pain  upon  the  head  of  the  wicked  ; '  Hosea  viii. 
7 :  '  For  they  have  sown  the  wind,  and  they  shall 
reap  the  whirlwind  ; '  Nahum  i.  3,  Zech.  vii.  14,  and 
other  passages  in  which  the  same  image  is  presented 


VALUE  OF  NATIVE  CHURCHES.  139 

—  always  quoting  chapter  and  verse.  I  was  sur- 
prised to  find  that  this  image  is  so  often  used  by  the 
sacred  writers.  And  how  this  blind  man,  never 
having  used  a  concordance  or  a  reference  Bible  in 
his  life,  could,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  refer  to 
all  these  texts,  was  quite  a  mystery.  But  his  mind 
was  stored  with  the  precious  treasure,  and  in  such 
order  that  he  always  had  it  at  command.  Never 
have  1  been  so  forcibly  impressed,  as  while  listening 
to  this  address,  with  the  remark  of  the  apostle, 
'  Knowing,  therefore,  the  terror  of  the  Lord,  we 
persuade  men ; '  and  seldom  have  I  witnessed  a 
specimen  of  more  genuine  eloquence.  Near  the 
close  he  said,  'Who  can  withstand  the  fury  of  the 
Lord,  when  he  comes  in  his  chariots  of  whirlwind  ? 
You  have  heard  of  the  cars  in  America,  propelled 
by  fire  and  steam,  with  what  mighty  speed  they  go, 
and  how  they  crush  all  in  their  way;  so  will  the 
swift  chariots  of  Jehovah  overwhelm  all  his  ene- 
mies.    Flee,  then,  to  the  ark  of  safety.' " 

These  three  remarkable  men  were  from  the  lowest 
grades  of  heathen  life.  What  they  became  was  the 
result  of  the  grace  of  God,  through  the  gospel. 
And  I  bring  them  forward  that  our  hopes  may  be 
raised  as  to  what  God  may  be  expected  to  do  through 
a  native  ministry.  We  must  not,  however,  expect 
such  eloquent  native  preachers  to  bear  a  larger  pro- 
portion among  the  ministers  of  their  own  respective 


140  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

countries,  than  such  men  do  in  our  own.  As  in 
old  Christian  countries,  so  among  preachers  of 
heathen  lands,  such  men  give  a  character  to  their 
profession.  We  thereby  obtain  a  more  exalted  and 
just  view  of  the  capabilities  of  the  profession ;  and 
they  help  to  overcome  the  natural  backwardness  in 
missionaries  to  throw  responsibilities  on  a  ministry 
so  recently  rescued  from  the  pollutions  of  idolatry. 

My  own  estimate  of  the  value  of  a  native  ministry 
has  been  rising  for  more  than  a  score  of  years.  A 
large  number  of  the  Christian  islands  in  Central 
and  Western  Polynesia  are  properly  reckoned  among 
their  trophies.  They  have  been  the  fearless  pioneers 
of  the  white  missionary,  facing  dangers  which  to 
him  would  have  been  fatal,  and  which  were  some- 
times fatal  to  themselves;  and  many  a  beautiful 
Christianized  group  in  the  broad  Pacific  is  now 
manned  solely  by  native  missionaries  and  pastors. 

The  question  naturally  arises,  and  needs  a  brief 
reply.  Whether  mission  churches  may  be  expected 
to  hold  fast  to  their  profession,  in  case  the  mission- 
aries should  withdraw,  and  leave  them  to  them- 
selves ?  There  are  some  very  interesting  facts  bear- 
ing on  this  question. 

The  churches  of  Tahiti,  one  of  the  Society  Islands, 
were  thus  situated,  for  twenty  years  after  the  Eng- 
lish missionaries  had  been  excluded  by  the  French. 
They  were  living  under  French  rule,  and  fully  ex- 


VALUE  OF  NATIVE   CHURCHES.  141 

posed  to  French  vices  and  to  Roman  Catholic  influ- 
ences ;  and  were  left  by  the  missionaries,  moreover, 
without  native  pastors.  Yet,  as  is  related  elsewhere, 
they  at  once  instituted  pastors  from  among  them- 
selves, and  more  than  held  their  ground.  Tahiti  and 
its  dependencies  are  still  under  French  rule ;  but  it 
was  stated  last  year  by  a  London  journal,  that  there 
are  now  thirty-seven  native  Protestant  parishes  and 
churches  with  only  native  pastors,  containing  three 
thousand  communicants ;  and  that  Pomare,  the 
queen,  and  nearly  all  her  people,  still  adhere  to  the 
Protestant  faith .^ 

And  we  have  seen  how  it  was  in  Madagascar, 
after  the  banishment  of  the  English  missionaries, 
and  during  five  and  twenty  years  of  persecution.  I 
know  of  no  more  remarkable  firmness  in  the  primi- 
tive churches.  The  blood  of  the  martyrs  in  Mada- 
gascar, as  in  ancient  times,  was  the  seed  of  the 
church.  We  have  seen,  too,  how  it  was  with  the 
native  Christians  in  India,  during  the  great  rebel- 
lion; which  had  for  its  object  not  only  the  over- 
throw of  the  English  power,  but  the  utter  destruc- 
tion of  Christianity,  and  when  the  native  Christians 
were  without  the  presence  and  support  of  their  mis- 
sionary fathers  and  brethren.  Nowhere  —  never,  was 
greater  firmness  shown  by  persecuted  Christians 
than  by  those. 

As  the  rebellion  did  not  extend  to  Southern  India, 

1  London  Patriot,  Aug.  16,  1866,  p.  542. 


142  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

the  native  Christians  there  had  not  to  pass  through 
the  fiery  ordeal  of  their  brethren  at  the  north.  Yet 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Thomas,  the  venerable  missionary 
already  quoted,  bears  the  most  pleasing  testimony 
concerning  the  native  Christians  under  his  mission- 
ary care.  "  I  do  not  for  a  moment  doubt,"  he  says, 
"  but  that  this  people  would  retain  their  religion,  if 
the  English  government  in  India,  and  all  the  mis- 
sionaries, were  providentially  withdrawn  from  the 
country.  Their  stability  arises  very  much,  I  think, 
from  their  knowledge  of  God's  holy  word,  and  the 
very  great  extent  to  which  the  power  of  reading  that 
word  has  been  afforded  by  means  of  our  village  ver- 
nacular schools."  1  Thus  showing  wherein  lies  the 
strength  and  glory  of  Protestant  missions,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  those  of  the  Romish  Church. 

It  is  natural  also  to  inquire.  Whether  what  are 
called  revivals  of  religion  are  common  in  churches 
among  the  heathen  ?  They  appear  to  me  to  be  not 
unfrequent,  and  to  be  evidently  the  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Indeed,  revivals  of  religion  do  not 
seem  peculiar  to  any  age,  or  country,  where  there 
is  vital  religion.  The  reformation  in  the  days  of 
Hezekiah  is  declared  to  have  occurred  "  suddenly."  2 
It  was  both  sudden  and  rapid.  So  was  that  in  the 
time  of  Ezra.     So  was  that  in  the  time  of  John,  the 

1  Church  Missionary^  Report,  1864-5,  p.  134. 

2  2  Chron.  xxix.  36. 


VALUE  OF  NATIVE   CHURCHES.  143 

forerunner.  So  was  that  of  the  Pentecost.  Such 
must  have  been  the  character  of  much  of  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Apostle  Paul ;  else  why  was  he  repre- 
sented, by  his  opposers,  as  creating  so  great  a  dis- 
turbance ?  Such  was  the  reformation  in  the  time 
of  Luther,  whose  grand  victory  was  achieved  within 
ten  years  after  he  first  raised  the  standard  of  reform. 
The  "  Great  Awakening  "  in  New  England  was  also 
sudden  and  rapid.  So  was  that  at  the  Sandwich 
Islands.  In  a  very  few  years,  subsequent  to  1836, 
more  than  thirty  thousand  hopeful  converts  were 
added  to  the  church.  Nor  was  the  progress  of  the 
gospel  less  rapid  in  the  Islands  of  the  South  Pacific. 
We  have  seen  how  it  was  in  Sierra  Leone,  in  Mada- 
gascar, and  among  the  Karens  of  Burmah.  In  the 
missions  of  Western  Asia  there  have  been  frequent 
revivals,  though  no  one  was  very  extensive.  And 
we  have  reason  to  believe  that  this  general  law  of 
progress  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  will  be  more  and 
more  exemplified  as  the  time  for  the  world's  conver- 
sion draws  near.  4 

In  the  Christian  Church,  which  is  yet  but  par- 
tially sanctified,  the  stream  of  gospel  grace  has  not 
a  continuous,  even  flow.  It  meets  with  obstruc- 
tions ;  and  when  it  rises  above  them  and  overflows 
them,  we  call  the  overflow  a  revival,  a  reformation. 

The  influences  that  modify  revivals  of  religion  are 
clearly  seen  in  the  heathen  world.  The  really  great 
awakenings  hitherto,  have  all  been  among  what  may 


144  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

be  called  the  aboriginal  races,  where  the  gospel 
encounters  less  of  organized  antagonism  than  in 
the  conquering  and  dominant  races.  And  by  press- 
ing the  work  among  these  more  pliant  races,  the 
Evangelical  Church  has  not  only  gained  important 
positions  and  advantages,  but  has  had  the  encour- 
agement it  so  much  needed  at  the  outset  of  its 
great  work,  to  labor  hopefully  and  patiently  in  the 
fields  of  greater  difficulty,  where  the  harvest  must 
needs  be  delayed,  but  will  be  more  abundant  when  it 
comes. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

MISSIONABY   LIFE   ILLUSTRATED. 

Fundamental  Principles.  —  The  Missionary  contemplated  in  his  Rela- 
tions —  as  a  Son ;  as  a  Brother  ;  as  a  Husband ;  as  a  Father  —  to 
his  Missionary  Board  ;  to  his  Mission  ;  to  the  People  for  whom  he 
labors.  —  Influence  of  the  Missionary  Life  on  Mental  Development ; 
on  Piety  ;  on  Happiness.  —  Cautionary  Suggestions. 

I  PROPOSE  to  illustrate  the  Missionary  Life  in 
some  of  its  more  important  relations,  as  that  life  has 
fallen  under  my  personal  observation.  Of  course  on 
such  a  topic  I  must  draw  my  facts  from  the  ex- 
perience of  that  Board  of  Missions,  with  which  I 
have  been  officially  connected.  There  will  be  an  ad- 
vantage in  presenting  this  particular  aspect  of  the 
missionary  life;  and  should  secretaries  of  other 
societies  do  the  same  with  theirs,  it  would  doubtless 
be  found,  that  there  is  no  great  diversity  in  its  gen- 
eral aspects. 

It  is  a  fundamental  principle,  that  the  missionary 
goes  on  his  mission  in  the  discharge  of  his  own  per- 
sonal duty ;  not  as  a  servant  of  the  churches,  and 
not  as  a  servant  of  the  missionary  society.  The 
churches  and  the  missionary  society  are  his  helpers, 
to  carry  out  his  own  benevolent  purpose.     The  mis- 

10 


146  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

sionary  is  indebted  to  the  churches  just  as  the 
churches  are  indebted  to  him ;  and  he  does  their 
work  in  the  same  sense  in  which  they  do  his  by 
supporting  him.  This  is  the  view  that  best  com- 
ports with  the  prosecution  of  missions  on  an  ex- 
tended scale. 

Moreover,  the  missionary  and  the  pastor  both 
derive  their  authority  from  the  same  commission. 
Both  are  alike  '•'  called  of  God  "  to  the  ministry  of 
the  gospel.  The  notion  that  "  evangelists,"  in  the 
Scripture  sense  of  that  term,  were  restricted,  as  an 
order  of  ministers,  to  the  apostolic  age,  and  that 
pastors  are  now  the  only  Scriptural  ministry,  —  which 
bears  too  great  a  resemblance  to  the  old  Popish  no- 
tion, that  ministers  may  not  be  ordained  sine  titulo, 
—  though  countenanced  by  some  of  the  Puritan 
Fathers,  was  disowned  by  the  Presbyterians  in  1764, 
and  is  not  in  keeping  with  the  command  of  our  Lord, 
as  it  is  now  understood,  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature.  If  there  be  any  class  of  gospel  ministers, 
which  is  clearly  recognized  and  enjoined  in  the  New 
Testament,  to  endure  until  the  world  is  converted, 
it  is  Christ's  ambassadors  to  the  benighted  and  the 
lost ;  it  is  those  who  devote  their  lives  to  the  exten- 
sion of  his  kingdom. 

Should  any  one  affirm,  in  opposition  to  this  view, 
that  we  find  directions  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles  only 
for  the  office  of  presbyters,  then  what  are  the  Epistles 
to  Timothy  and  Titus  ?  i 

1  See  Appendix  V. —  Looking  from  the  author's  stand-point,  it  seems 


THE  MISSIONARY  LIFE.  147 

I  now  contemplate  the  missionary  in  some  of  his 
more  important  personal  relations. 

1.  In  his  relations  as  a  smi  and  a  brother.  It  is 
not  uncommon  for  parents  to  make  ohjections,  at 
first,  to  the  going  of  a  son  or  daughter  on  a  foreign 
mission.  Often  this  is  the  result  of  mere  natural 
instinct;  as  in  the  mother  of  Samuel  J.  Mills, 
though  she  had  dedicated  him  from  his  hirth  to  the 
work  of  missions,  and  when  it  is  so,  as  in  her  case, 
the  objection  soon  yields  to  reflection.     Sometimes 

strange  that  the  fathers  of  Congregationalism  should  have  taken  the 
limited  view  some  of  them  did  of  the  office  and  duties  of  the  gospel 
ministry,  and  of  the  power  and  duty  of  the  churches  to  provide  a  com- 
petent ministry  for  planting  churches  outside  of  Christendom,  and  sup- 
plying those  churches  with  a  competent  pastorate.  To  instance  only  the 
excellent  Dr.  Owen,  in  his  Discourses  of  Spiritual  Gijls.  [  Works,  iv.  p. 
275.]  After  declaring  it  to  be  the  principal  work  of  an  evangelist, 
"  to  go  up  and  down  from  one  place  and  nation  unto  another,  to  preach 
the  gospel  unto  Jews  and  Gentiles  as  yet  unconverted,"  he  asks :  "  Who 
shall  now  empower  any  one  hereunto  ?  What  church,  what  persons, 
have  received  authority  to  ordain  any  one  to  be  such  an  evangelist  ?  It 
cannot  be  proved,"  he  adds,  "  that  any  church  or  person  has  power  or 
authority  to  ordain  a  person  into  this  office ! "  That  the  eminent 
divine  was  writing  with  no  reference  to  the  claims  and  exigencies  of 
the  heathen  world  of  his  times,  with  the  restricted  idea  of  the  church 
as  a  self-preserving,  self-governing,  and  not  a  selt-propagating  body, 
and  mainly  with  his  eye  on  hierarchal  assumptions  so  rampant  in  those 
times,  is  obvious  from  the  general  tenor  of  his  reasoning.  Had  he 
lived  in  our  day,  he  would  on  no  account  have  shut  up  the  preaching 
ministry  of  the  church  to  the  pastoral  office,  nor  to  lands  already 
Christianized.  Nor  will  the  evangelical  churches  and  ministry  of  any 
denomination,  in  these  days,  allow  themselves  to  be  restricted  iu 
their  labors  for  the  kingdom  of  their  blessed  Lord  and  Saviour. 


148  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

it  is  the  result  of  ignorance  concerning  missions,  or 
of  a  lack  of  pious  reflection,  or  of  deficient  self-con- 
secration. In  such  cases  it  is  not  common,  I  be- 
lieve, for  parents  to  yield,  until  they  clearly  see  that 
the  mind  of  their  son  or  daughter  is  made  up  on 
conscientious  grounds.  Supposing  the  parent  to  be 
in  the  wrong,  there  is  the  more  call  for  calm  persis- 
tence in  the  child,  because  such  a  state  of  mind 
must  be  injurious  to  the  parent,  and  because  the 
parent  will  be  almost  sure  to  yield  at  last  (if  a  true 
disciple),  and  to  find  the  sacrifice  conducive  to  his 
growth  in  grace  and  religious  enjoyment. 

I  recollect  but  one  instance,  and  that  many  years 
since,  in  which  a  mother  regarded  the  mission  con- 
templated by  her  two  sons  with  such  nervous  terror, 
as  to  threaten  the  overthrow  of  her  reason.  Both 
of  the  sons  were  members  of  the  Andover  Seminary, 
and  the  case  was  so  marked,  that  I  advised  them,  as 
a  filial  duty,  to  relinquish  the  idea  of  going  abroad, 
and  they  are  now  highly  useful  pastors.  Our  Sav- 
iour's declaration,  Mark  vii.  11,^  is  obviously  appli- 
cable to  cases  of  this  sort ;  as  also,  when  the  com- 
fortable support  of  parents  requires  the  young  min- 
ister to  remain  near  them.  There  is  a  tradition  of 
Dr.  Milne,  the  celebrated  associate  of  Dr.  Morrison, 
in  China,  which  probably  has   some  foundation  in 

1  "  But  ye  say,  If  a  man  shall  say  to  his  father  or  mother,  It  is  Cor- 
ban,  that  is  to  say,  a  gift,  by  whatsoever  thou  mightest  be  profited  by 
me,  he  shall  go  free,"  etc. 


THE  MISSIONARY  LIFE.  149 

fact ;  that  before  decidedly  entering  on  his  prepara- 
tion for  a  foreign  mission,  he  labored  to  secure  a 
cottage,  a  cow,  and  a  few  other  needful  things  for 
his  Scottish  mother,  which  placed  her  in  comfortable 
circumstances.  In  so  doing,  he  complied  with  the 
spirit  of  our  Lord's  injunction.  I  recollect  one  in- 
stance, and  but  one,  of  a  missionary  actually  coming 
home,  which  he  did  with  the  approval  of  his  society, 
to  look  after  an  impoverished  and  dependent  mother. 
Very  few  cases  have  been  within  my  knowledge, 
however,  where  parents  have  actually  suffered  for 
want  of  support,  as  a  consequence  of  giving  up  their 
children  to  the  gospel  ministry  among  the  heathen. 
Questions  of  this  sort  have  more  frequently  had 
weight  when  the  theological  student  was  deciding 
upon  his  duty  prospectively,  and  generally  because 
of  younger  brothers  or  sisters  requiring  protection 
and  aid.  It  is  my  belief,  that  the  claims  of  kindred 
have  exerted  very  little  more  legitimate  influence  in 
relation  to  foreign  missions,  than  they  have  when 
determining  where  to  settle  in  pastoral  life  at  home. 

2.  I  contemplate  the  missionary  in  the  relations 
of  a  husband  and  father.  That  he  should  generally 
go  as  a  married  man,  is  beyond  all  reasonable  ques- 
tion. With  an  intelligent,  pious,  well-educated  wife, 
having  good  health  and  a  devoted  spirit,  his  value  as 
a  missionary  is  greatly  enhanced.  She  faces  danger 
and  endures  hardship  as  well  as  he.     Her  courage, 


150  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

faith,  and  patience  among  barbarous  heathens,  fully 
equal  her  husband's,  and  her  presence  adds  much  to. 
his  safety,  and  the  more  if  she  have  little  children. 
When  the  wife  proves  unable  to  endure  the  exposures 
of  the  missionary  life,  if  the  medical  opinion  require 
a  visit  to  this  country,  and  the  mission  advise  it,  the 
executive  committee  seldom  hesitates  to  afford  the 
means  for  a  return,  and  reasonable  facilities,  also, 
for  a  recovery  of  health.  When  a  recovery  is  out 
of  the  question,  such  as  would  warrant  a  return  to 
the  mission,  an  honorable  release  is  granted,  and 
the  missionary  exercises  his  ministry  in  his  native 
land.  Some  of  the  most  esteemed  of  our  home 
ministers  have  been  of  this  class. 

How  is  it  with  the  children  of  missionaries  ?  I 
am  probably  better  informed  on  this  subject  thau 
any  other  person,  and  I  approach  it  with  pleasure. 
I  speak  of  the  children  after  they  have  been  sepa- 
rated from  their  parents,  and  brought  to  this  coun- 
try for  education. 

In  continental  tropical  regions,  there  are  reasons 
in  the  climate  why  children  should  be  sent  home ; 
but  in  general  they  may  be  safely  retained  there 
until  about  the  age  of  twelve  years,  in  which  time 
the  very  important  result  is  secured,  if  it  ever  is,  of 
impressing  the  parental  relation  strongly  upon  the 
mind  and  heart  of  the  child.  There  are  various 
reasons,  besides  the  climate,  for  sending  the  chil- 
dren home.     By  obtaining  a  part  of  their  education 


THE  MISSIONARY  LIFE.  151 

here,  they  will  be  of  far  greater  value  as  the  proba- 
ble successors  of  their  parents  in  the  missionary 
work.  Indeed,  a  competent  education  for  that  ser- 
vice, or  for  any  of  the  higher  departments  of  a 
Christian  life,  cannot  be  well  obtained  either  in 
India  or  China;  and  when  the  time  comes  for  a 
transfer  to  the  parental  home,  the  parents,  though 
weeping  over  the  sacrifice,  are  ready,  out  of  love  to 
their  offspring,  to  welcome  it  as  a  boon. 

The  time  for  sending  the  children  home  rests 
wholly  with  the  parents,  as  also  does  the  choice  of 
a  guardian ;  for  it  is  expected  that  the  parental 
authority  will  always  be  delegated  by  the  parent  to 
some  one  in  this  country.  The  expenses  of  the  voy- 
age are  usually  met  by  the  missionary  society,  which 
also  makes  an  annual  grant  to  the  child  of  about 
one  hundred  dollars  until  eighteen  years  of  age, 
when  applied  for  by  the  guardian.  As  the  mission- 
ary society  sustains  an  equal  relation  to  all  the  re- 
turned children,  and  could  not  be  at  the  expense  of 
giving  a  liberal  education  to  all,  it  is  obviously  pre- 
cluded from  making  grants  expressly  for  the  educa- 
tion of  any  one  at  college.  It  aims  to  do  just 
enough,  as  shown  by  experience,  to  secure  a  place 
for  the  returned  children  of  missionaries  in  the 
great  current  of  social  life  in  this  country,  which 
bears  along  the  children  of  Christian  parents.  It 
aims  to  do  just  enough  to  enable  and  induce  rela- 
tives and  friends  to  do  the  rest.     More  than  this 


152  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

would  tend  to  defeat  the  object  of  sending  the  chil- 
dren home.  A  permanent  fund  raised  for  this  pur- 
pose, which  some  have  urged,  besides  being  unneces- 
sary, would  be  detrimental  in  various  respects  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  children.  A  separate  school 
for  them,  which  some  have  strongly  recommended, 
would  be  a  calamity,  since  they  ought  by  all  means 
to  be  educated  along  with  other  boys  and  girls,  along 
with  the  young  men  and  women  of  their  generation. 
Missionaries  would  generally,  and  with  good  reason, 
oppose  such  a  separation  and  isolation  of  their  chil- 
dren. 

I  have  made  considerable  progress  in  obtaining 
positive  information  as  to  the  results  of  this  system. 
Answers  have  been  received  to  one  hundred  and 
eighty-four  printed  circulars  sent  to  returned  chil- 
dren above  twelve  years  of  age,  or  to  their  guardians. 
The  age  of  the  oldest  of  these  is  now  almost  fifty 
years,  and  their  places  of  residence  of  course  it  is 
not  always  easy  to  ascertain.  The  number  of  males 
was  ninety-five,  and  of  females  eighty-nine.  Of  the 
ninety-five  males,  seventy-one  were  reported  to  be 
members  of  churches ;  and  of  the  eighty-nine 
females,  seventy-eight  were  thus  reported.  That 
is  to  say,  one  hundred  and  forty-nine  of  the  one 
hundred  and  eighty-four  were  church-members. 
Although  the  Board  has  never  made  a  single  grant, 
so  far  as  I  recollect,  expressly  for  a  college  educa- 
tion, for  the  reason  just  stated,  yet  as  many  as  fifty- 


THE  MISSIONARY  LIFE.  153 

one  of  the  ninety-five  males  have  received  such  an 
education,  or  are  now  receiving  it ;  and  thirty-one 
others  are  in  academies,  and  believed  to  be  generally 
preparing  for  college.  That  is  to  say,  eighty-two  of 
the  ninety-five  males  are  reported  as  having  received, 
or  as  now  receiving  a  liberal  education  ;  and  thirteen 
of  them  have  been  or  are  now  in  the  gospel  ministry. 
Of  the  eighty-nine  females,  seventy-eight  are  re- 
ported as  having  received,  or  as  now  receiving,  an 
education  in  academies  or  high  schools;  and  thir- 
teen of  them  are,  or  have  been  wives  of  missionaries. 
And  I  believe  that  responses  from  those  not  heard 
from,  would  vary  but  little  from  the  reports  already 
received.  • 

These  will  probably  be  regarded  as  remarkable 
results,  —  superior,  perhaps,  to  what  we  should  find 
on  a  similar  inquiry  into  the  circumstances  and  his- 
tory of  any  other  class  of  children  in  our  country ; 
and  they  are  directly  referable  to  the  providence  and 
grace  of  God.  How  large  a  proportion  of  them  we 
may  number  among  the  followers  of  the  Lamb  ! 
How  large  a  proportion  receive  the  best  education 
our  country  affords !  And  yet  who  is  able  to  tell,  in 
respect  to  most,  in  what  manner  all  the  expenses  of 
their  college  or  high  school  education  have  been 
met?  We  see  clearly  the  hand  of  Him,  who  said, 
''  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always." 

3.  I  next  contemplate  the  missionary  in  his  rela- 


154  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

tions  to  his  Missionary  Board,  The  missionary  has 
the  same  ecclesiastical  liberty  which  pastors  have  at 
home ;  and  he  is,  at  the  same  time,  as  much  under 
proper  controlling  influences.  No  body  of  ministers 
is  more  free,  or  under  greater  responsibility.  I  say 
this  in  view  of  the  fundamental  principle  with  which 
I  started,  that  the  missionary  goes  on  his  mission  in 
the  conscientious  discharge  of  his  personal  duty  to 
his  Lord  and  Master.  And  I  rejoice  in  being  able 
to  say,  that,  in  this  service,  he  is  quite  sure  of  what 
is  or  ought  to  be  a  comfortable  support.  The  enter- 
prise of  the  celebrated  Miiller,  in  England,  is  often 
spoken  of  as  if  it  were  peculiarly  a  work  of  faith. 
It  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be  so  very  peculiar  in  this 
respect.  That  of  the  American  Board,  in  appro- 
priating half  a  million  of  dollars  and  more  for  an 
expenditure  a  year  before  it  is  received,  is  not  less  a 
work  of  faith.  The  trust  in  God  is  the  same  in 
nature,  the  same  in  degree ;  and  so,  substantially,  is 
the  use  of  means.  This  is  true  as  to  the  support  of 
every  missionary.  The  pledge  given  by  the  mission- 
ary society  of  a  support  to  its  missionaries,  is  noth- 
ing more  than  the  expression  of  an  assured  faith, 
that  the  means  will  be  provided.  The  Board  can 
give  no  more  than  it  receives.  There  is  no  firm 
footing  for  the  society,  or  for  its  missionaries,  except 
in  the  promise  of  the  great  Lord  of  all.  If  the  mis- 
sionary feels  sure  of  a  support,  it  is  for  precisely  the 
reason  that  is  said  to  animate  the  celebrated  philan- 
thropist just  named. 


THE  MISSIONARY  LIFE.  155 

I  believe  there  has  been  no  case  in  the  experience 
of  the  American  Board,  where  the  missionary  has 
failed  to  receive  his  full  salary,  nor  do  I  believe  there 
ever  w^ill  be.  The  ground  of  this  confidence  is  in 
faith ;  strengthened  indeed  by  a  long  experience, 
and  by  the  well-known  fact  in  missions  to  foreign 
heathen  lands,  that  such  a  support  is  essential  to 
their  existence.  Nor  do  I  believe  it  will  ever  be 
found  more  difficult  than  it  has  been  heretofore,  to 
provide  for  the  returned  disabled  missionary,  and 
for  the  missionary  widow.  As  for  the  returned  chil- 
dren of  missionaries,  I  cannot  doubt  that  a  way  will 
ere  long  be  devised,  with  but  little  actual  increase  of 
expense,  to  enable  every  missionary,  acting  through 
his  relatives  and  friends,  or  in  cooperation  with 
them,  to  take  the  whole  arrangement  for  the  educa- 
tion of  his  children  in  this  country  into  his  own 
hands,  just  as  ministers  do  who  are  in  the  pastoral 
office  at  home. 

I  next  inquire,  how  it  is  with  the  missionary  when 
no  longer  able  to  labor  in  his  field.  The  case  differs 
from  that  of  the  pastor  at  home  chiefly  in  this,  that 
the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Board,  perhap^s 
without  having  greater  power  than  parishes  gener- 
ally have  to  do  what  is  equitable  in  the  case,  has 
yet  a  stronger  disposition  so  to  do.  Each  case  is 
treated  on  its  own  individual  merits,  with  the  inten- 
tion always  to  do  what  is  equitable.     There  is  some- 


156  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

times  a  difference  of  opinion  between  the  missionary 
and  his  mission,  and  sometimes  between  the  mis- 
sionary and  his  committee ;  but  in  all  cases,  so  far  as 
I  recollect,  where  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  public 
judgment,  the  final  result  has  been,  substantially, 
with  the  mission,  and  with  the  committee.  I  fear 
as  much  as  this  can  hardly  be  said  of  parishes  here 
at  home  as  a  general  fact,  nor  even  of  churches,  in 
relation  to  their  dismissed  pastors. 

The  case  of  returned  widows  is  the  most  difficult 
to  treat,  because  they  so  easily  pass  out  from  obser- 
vation, and  this  is  most  true  of  the  more  meritorious 
among  them.  Nevertheless  I  believe,  that  as  a  class, 
they  are,  to  say  the  least,  as  much  favored  as  are 
the  widows  of  pastors  at  home.  Some  persons  have 
advocated  the  raising  of  a  fund  for  their  support; 
and  such  a  fund  could  be  raised.  But  it  would  in- 
jure the  Board,  without  being  of  use  to  them.  The 
possession,  by  the  Missionary  Board,  of  a  greater 
amount  of  permanent  funds  than  is  actually  needed 
for  its  credit  in  the  world  of  commerce,  would 
weaken  that  principle  of  faith,  on  which  so  much 
depends.  And  where  it  is  a  fact,  that  as  much  is 
allowed  to  widows,  all  things  considered,  as  ought 
to  be,  to  aid  them  in  serving  the  Lord  Jesus  in  their 
widowed  state,  then  it  would  not  be  expected  that 
they  should  receive  a  greater  amount,  were  there  a 
widow's  fund.  Nor  would  grants  made  to  them  from 


THE   MISSIONARY  LIFE.  157 

such  a  fund  be  any  less  a  charity  than  they  are 
under  the  present  arrang-ement.  Nor,  in  either 
case,  would  it  be  more  a  charity  than  our  blessed 
Lord  submitted  to  during  his  whole  public  ministry 
on  earth.     And  the  servant  is  not  above  his  Lord. 

After  carefully  examining  the  experience  of  the 
American  Board  from  the  commencement  of  its 
operations,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  affirming,  that 
the  widows  of  missionaries  have  been  as  kindly  cared 
for,  as  a  class,  as  are  the  widows  of  pastors  in  this 
country  ;  and  I  could  use  even  stronger  language, 
were  it  needful. 

The  result  of  my  observation  on  this  whole  sub- 
ject, during  the  past  five  and  forty  years,  is,  that 
the  relation  between  the  missionary  and  his  Board 
is  one  of  great  mutual  satisfaction ;  though  of  course 
not  without  its  share  of  the  misapprehensions  and 
trials  which  are  incident  to  every  sphere  of  human 
life. 

4.  We  come  next  to  the  relations  sustained  by 
the  missionary  to  his  mission.  In  the  mission  he 
belongs  to  a  self-governing  republic,  where  every 
man  has  an  equal  vote,  and  where  the  majority 
rules  ;  with  the  right,  however  (which  is  very  rarely 
exercised),  of  an  appeal  to  the  Prudential  Commit- 
tee, and  ultimately  to  the  Board.  Years  ago,  a  cer- 
tain mission  was  much  afflicted  by  divided  counsels 
among  its  members,  and  the  cause  was  not  apparent. 


158  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

It  was  at  length  ascertained,  that  this  was  the  result 
of  a  want  of  a  proper  division  of  labor  among  the 
several  missionaries.  The  missionaries  had  not  a 
sufficient  weight  of  responsibility  resting  upon  them 
individually.  This  principle,  in  its  relations  to  mis- 
sions, was  then  somewhat  of  a  discovery,  and  has 
since  been  acted  on  with  the  most  happy  results. 
When  missionaries  have  been  trained  to  feel  fully 
the  moral  responsibility  of  a  majority  vote  (as  it  has 
been  found  that  Europeans,  from  a  deficiency  in 
their  early  education,  seldom  are),  and  when  each 
has  a  sufficient  pressure  of  duty,  this  method  of  or- 
ganizing missions  works  exceedingly  well. 

The  policy  of  the  American  Board  is,  to  throw  all 
possible  responsibility  upon  the  mission  thus  organ- 
ized. The  mission  is  not,  however,  in  a  technical 
sense,  an  ecclesiastical  body.  It  is  simply  a  mission 
acting  under  the  commission  of  our  blessed  Lord, 
with  liberty  to  do  what  is  needful  for  its  greatest 
success.  Of  course  there  is,  as  there  ought  to  be, 
much  room  for  the  exercise  of  a  wise  discretion,  and 
for  the  development  of  experience.  We  have  been 
learning,  during  the  fifty  or  sixty  years  past,  in  what 
manner  a  mission  should  be  worked,  but  probably 
have  yet  more  to  learn.  We  have  learned  this :  that 
particular  forms  of  ecclesiastical  machinery,  because 
they  work  well  at  home,  are  not  therefore  to  be  re- 
garded as  exactly  the  thing  to  be  set  up  in  young 
Christian  communities  formed  in  heathen  lands ;  and 


THE  MISSIONARY  LIFE.  159 

precisely  what  the  modifications  should  be,  is  still  an 
open  question.  We  have  learned,  moreover,  that 
matters  of  this  sort  should  be  mainly  left  to  the 
discretion  of  missionaries  in  the  field.  They  have 
liberty  to  form  associations,  or  presbyteries,  as  they 
feel  the  need  of  them ;  yet  since  their  financial  ques- 
tions all  helong  to  the  mission  as  such,  and  since 
most  of  the  questions  that  arise  have  more  or  less 
connection  with  finance,  their  social  life  is  very  much 
in  the  meetings  of  the  mission,  or  of  its  committees. 
Moreover,  it  is  a  fundamental  principle,  in  the  sys- 
tem of  missions  now  under  special  contemplation, 
that  ecclesiastical  bodies  for  native  churches  and 
pastors,  should  be  exclusively  for  them ;  the  mis- 
sionaries sustaining  to  them  only  the  relation  of 
advisers. 

Of  course  the  relations  of  missionaries  to  their 
missions  in  no  degree  affect  their  relations  to  their 
ecclesiastical  bodies  at  home.  The  Board  may  dis- 
miss a  missionary  for  malpractice,  but  cannot  depose 
him  from  the  ministry;  yet  the  ecclesiastical  body 
at  home  may  call  upon  the  Board  for  the  facts  within 
its  knowledge,  when  investigating  the  conduct  of  a 
missionary  to  learn  whether  he  should  be  deposed 
from  the  ministry. 

I  should  add,  that  missionary  societies  and  the 
missions,  though  technically  speaking  not  ecclesi- 
astical bodies,  have  become  (as  has  been  elsewhere 
afiirmed)  a  component   part  of  the   great   modern 


160  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

structure  of  the  Christian  Church,  as  it  is  being 
organized  under  God's  providence,  for  the  conver- 
sion of  the  world ;  and  they  should  be  permitted  to 
sustain  the  responsibilities  and  perforin  the  duties, 
that  are  essential  to  the  successful  prosecution  of 
the  missionary  work  on  the  broad  scale  of  the  world. 

5.  We  next  contemplate  the  missionary  in  his 
relations  to  the  people  for  whom  he  labors.  He  is  an 
ambassador  from  the  Sovereign  Lord  to  benighted 
men  in  a  state  of  rebellion,  with  a  message  of 
mercy.  And  it  seems  reasonable  to  suppose,  after 
he  has  acquired  the  language  of  the  people,  that  no 
elaborate  process  of  education  is  needful  to  make  the 
people  understand  his  message.  Many  of  the  ear- 
lier missionaries  thought  otherwise;  and  it  would 
be  easy  to  find  statements,  by  eminent  men  now  in 
the  "  Better  Land,"  showing  how  the  heathen  must 
be  elaborately  educated  into  the  Christian  import  of 
the  words  God,  sin,  holiness,  and  other  similar  terms, 
before  they  will  be  able  to  comprehend  the  gospel 
message.  There  is  something  in  this,  if  the  gospel 
message  is  to  be  conveyed  to  the  heathen  simply 
through  a  process  of  education.  But  the  heathen 
hiow  that  they  are  sinners ;  they  have  a  con- 
science ;  and  if  boldly  and  affectionately  approached 
by  one  whose  own  heart  is  full  of  the  subject,  and 
solemnly  assured  of  their  lost  condition  as  sinners, 
and  of  the  free  salvation  offered  them  through  the 


THE  MISSIOJS/ARY  LIFE.  161 

Lord  Jesus  Christ,  experience  has  abundantly  shown, 
that  there  is  no  way  so  effectual  as  this  of  securing* 
the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  their  conversion.  The 
gospel  may  have  direct  access  to  the  most  debased 
heathen  mind.  Of  this  there  is  evidence  in  the 
abounding  proofs  of  the  success  of  missions.  We 
see  it  in  Sierra  Leone,  among  the  Karens  and  Sha- 
nars  of  India,  in  Madagascar,  in  South  Africa,  and 
on  the  Pacific  Islands.  The  especial  demand  in  mis- 
sions for  education  and  for  books  comes  after  the 
attention  has  been  arrested,  and  more  especially  for 
converts,  and  for  such  as  are  being  trained  for  the 
gospel  ministry.  Nothing  precedes  of  necessity  the 
simple  declaration  of  salvation  through  the  cross 
of  Christ,  when  it  comes  from  lips  that  have  been 
touched  with  a  coal  from  off  the  altar  of  God. 

6.  I  now  contemplate  the  missionary  simply  as  a 
man.  And,  first,  as  to  the  influence  of  the  mis- 
sionary life  on  his  mental  development.  I  believe 
there  is  as  much  of  this  development  in  mission- 
aries, as  there  is  in  the  home  ministry ;  and  the 
question  I  raise  is  only  how  this  is  possible  in  cir- 
cumstances apparently  so  unfavorable.  I  account 
for  it  by  the  fact,  that,  with  the  more  intelligent 
missionaries,  the  pressure  is  not  less  upon  the  men- 
tal faculties,  than  it  is  in  the  pastoral  office  at  home ; 
and  this  is  as  true  in  the  more  barbarous  heathen 
countries,  as  it  is  in  the  more  civilized.  I  even 
11 


162  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

think,  that  the  mental  pressure  upon  the  intelligent 
and  conscientious  missionary  is  often  greater  than 
it  is  upon  his  hrethren  at  home.  For  he  finds  that 
there  is  everything  to  be  done,  and  that  he  is  the 
only  one  to  do  it.  He  must  be  feet  to  the  lame,  eyes 
to  the  blind,  ears  to  the  deaf,  and  must  almost  re- 
construct the  intellect,  and  almost  recreate  the  con- 
science. Did  this  responsibility  come  upon  the  mis- 
sionary all  at  once,  he  could  not  bear  it ;  but  come 
it  will,  sooner  or  later,  and  the  intelligent  and  faith- 
ful missionary^  need  fear  no  loss  of  stimulus  to  his 
mind.  It  is  the  same  that  operated  on  the  mind 
and  heart  of  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles;  and  it 
will  increase  with  his  years,  especially  in  its  demands 
upon  the  judging  and  administrative  powers. 

How  is  it  with  the  influence  of  the  missionary  life 
upon  the  happiness  of  the  missionary  ?  Among  the 
more  than  four  hundred  ordained  missionaries,  with 
whom  I  have  sustained  an  intimate  official  relation, 
there  have  been  cases  of  extreme  sorrow;  arising 
from  early  prostration  of  the  health,  from  the  pre- 
dominance of  morbid  sensibilities,  from  failure  to 
acquire  the  language,  and  other  causes.  But  these 
have  been  the  exceptions,  not  the  rule.  The  mis- 
sionaries as  a  body  have  been  happy  in  the  field  and 
work  of  their  choice.  They  have  seemed  to  me, 
when  among  them  at  their  several  homes,  both  men 
and  women,  to  be  the  happiest  clerical  families,  as  a 
whole,  within  my  knowledge.     There  is  no  way  of 


THE  MISSIONARY  LIFE.  163 

accounting  for  this,  but  in  the  fulfillment  of  the 
Saviour's  promise.  For  it  is  a  fact  that  mission- 
aries, being  far  away  from  civilized  Christian  society, 
experience  a  certain  degree  of  loss  in  the  diminished 
pressure  of  a  wholesome  public  opinion,  which  sur- 
rounds and  sustains  us  in  Christian  lands  like  an 
atmosphere ;  thus  creating  a  need  of  more  grace  to 
insure  right  feeling  and  living,  than  is  required  at 
home.  Nor  do  I  believe  that  any  Protestant  mis- 
sionary, without  this  special  grace,  is  likely  to  per- 
severe in  his  mission.  But  the  grace  that  is  needed 
is  usually  imparted ;  and  if  sacrifices  are  demanded, 
there  is  a  pleasure  in  making  them  for  Christ  which 
is  proportioned  to  the  sacrifice.  That  missionary 
mother,  parting  with  her  child  on  the  Burman 
shore,  when  she  raised  her  hand  to  heaven  and  ex- 
claimed, "  0  Saviour,  I  do  this  for  thee  ! "  must 
have  felt  a  joy  at  that  moment,  rising  above  her 
grief,  akin  to  that  of  the  martyr  at  the  stake.  And 
what  joy  had  Sarah  Lanman  Smith,  dying  in  West- 
ern Asia,  when  she  declared  that,  for  the  world,  she 
would  not  lay  her  remains  anywhere  but  there  on 
missionary  ground. 

And  this  leads  me  to  speak,  finally,  of  the  influ- 
ence of  the  missionary  life  on  the  piety  of  the  mis- 
sionary. For  the  reason  just  now  stated,  more 
strength  of  piety  is  required  to  be  a  good  mission- 
ary among  the  heathen,  than  to  be  a  good  pastor  at 
home.     I  do  not  claim  for  missionaries  a  more  per- 


164  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

feet  exhibition  of  the  Christian  life,  than  is  seen  in 
the  home  ministry ;  but  since,  in  their  exposed  cir- 
cumstances, they  need  a  higher  and  firmer  tone  of 
the  inward  Christian  life,  I  think  that,  through 
divine  grace,  they  have  it.  I  believe  that  is  the  im- 
pression made  by  them,  as  a  class,  in  their  visits  to 
this  country.  At  any  rate,  that  is  the  impression 
they  have  made  upon  me. 

I  have  long  been  impressed  with  the  general  char- 
acter of  missionary  death-beds.  The  love  of  native 
land  and  of  the  friends  in  that  land,  is  not  dimin- 
ished by  distance  and  the  lapse  of  time,  and  death 
sometimes  comes  early  to  the  missionary,  and  unex- 
pectedly, and  in  circumstances  of  great  discomfort ; 
yet  I  recall  no  case  of  regret  expressed  at  meeting 
it,  by  the  missionary,  or  his  wife,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances on  missionary  ground.  The  sentiment 
expressed  by  Mrs.  Smith,  has  been  the  common  sen- 
timent with  missionaries ;  and  the  venerable  Allen 
Graves,  when  he  came  from  India,  many  years  ago, 
for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  and  found  that  he  must 
die,  proffered  a  request  through  me,  that  he  might 
be  allowed  to  return  to  India  and  die  there,  which 
request  was  granted.  Harriet  Newell,  when  told, 
on  the  Isle  of  France,  that  she  was  soon  to  leave 
the  world,  exclaimed,  "  Joyful  news !  I  long  to  de- 
part." The  last  audible  words  of  Levi  Parsons, 
dying  in  Egypt,  were,  "  The  angel  of  the  Lord  en- 
campeth  round  about  them  that  fear  him."     Mrs. 


THE  MISSIONARY  LIFE.  165 

Poor's  dying  words  in  Ceylon  were,  "  Glory  to  God 
the  Father,  to  God  the  Son,  to  God  the  Holy 
Ghost"  —  words,  it  may  be,  among  the  first  she 
uttered  on  reaching  the  heavenly  world.  And  her 
venerated  husband,  dying  many  years  after,  whis- 
pered, as  he  closed  his  eyes  on  earth,  "  Joy  !  Joy ! 
Hallelujah !  "  "  If  this  be  the  darh  valley, ^^  said  the 
excellent  Mrs.  Hervey,  dying  soon  after  her  arrival 
in  India,  "  there  is  no  darkness  in  it ;  all  is  light  — 
light !  " 

And  the  cases  might  be  easily  multiplied  of  calm, 
peaceful  trust  in  Christ  in  the  dying  hour,  of  a  tran- 
quil hope  of  immortality,  and  of  gratitude  for  the 
privilege  of  living  and  dying  in  the  work  of  mis- 
sions. 

I  may  not  close  without  a  few  suggestions,  which 
are  needed  to  prevent  misapprehension. 

As  I  have  stated  the  case,  the  support  of  the  for- 
eign missionary  and  his  family  is  more  nearly  a  uni- 
form and  adequate  supply  of  their  temporal  wants, 
than  is  generally  enjoyed  by  ministers  and  their 
families  in  this  country.  The  final  cause  for  this, 
in  the  ordering  of  Divine  Providence,  would- seem  to 
be,  that  the  prosecution  of  missions  among  heathen 
nations  by  married  missionaries,  would  not  other- 
wise be  a  possibility.  How  could  a  missionary,  with 
wife  and  children,  as  human  nature  is,  possibly  keep 
the  field  in  a  tropical  region,  surrounded  by  a  half- 


166  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

civilized,  unsympathizing,  heathen  people,  with  only 
a  partial  or  uncertain  support?  Very  different 
would  it  be,  were  he  anywhere  within  the  bounds 
of  his  native  land,  in  a  community  homogeneous 
with  himself,  where  only  a  few  years  are  needed  for 
the  incoming  of  civilization  to  develop  a  congenial 
home  for  his  family ;  and  still  more,  were  he  labor- 
ing in  an  already  matured  and  well-organized  Chris- 
tian community.  A  mission  composed  of  married 
missionaries  does  indeed  cost  considerably  more 
than  would  a  mission  composed  of  unmarried  mis- 
sionaries ;  yet  such  a  mission  is  so  much  more  effect- 
ive abroad,  and  so  much  more  interesting  at  home, 
that  it  is  easier,  in  point  of  fact,  to  obtain  the  means 
of  supporting  it  from  the  churches,  than  it  would  be 
to  support  a  mission  of  unmarried  missionaries.  An 
adequate  support  is  believed  to  be  an  essential  thing 
in  foreign  Protestant  missions,  since  on  no  other 
supposition  would  such  missions  be  possible  on  an 
extended  scale. 

Yet  it  is  by  no  means  true,  as  is  often  asserted, 
and  as  is  perhaps  generally  believed,  that  the  trials 
of  the  home  missionary  life  are  greater  than  those 
to  which  the  foreign  missionary  is  subjected.  I  do 
not  undervalue  the  trials  of  the  home  missionary. 
My  habit  for  many  years  has  been  carefully  to  note 
them,  as  set  forth,  monthly,  by  the  Home  Mission- 
ary Society ;  and  they  are  a  noble  testimony  to  the 
self-consecration  and  zeal  of  that  enterprising,  de- 


THE  MISSIONARY  LIFE.  167 

voted,  and  most  useful  and  essential  body  of  Chris- 
tian ministers.  But  the  most  painful  trials  of  gos- 
pel ministers,  whether  pastors  or  missionaries,  are 
those  which  appertain  to  their  spiritual  vocation  ; 
and  here  the  foreign  missionary  must  be  the  greater 
sufferer.  I  have  long  ceased  to  expect  a  foreign 
missionary  to  persevere  in  his  work,  who  does  not 
enter  upon  it  as  a  life  of  faith,  and  with  a  certain 
amount  of  physical,  mental,  and  moral  adaptation. 
Mere  philosophers  will  not  go  on  such  missions,  and 
mere  philanthropists  would  not  remain  long,  should 
they  happen  to  go.  Impulsive,  unreflecting  piety 
will  give  out  before  the  day  of  embarkation,  or  retire 
ere  the  language  has  been  acquired,  or  the  battle 
has  fairly  begun.  Fine  conceptions  of  the  beautiful 
in  social  life,  glowing  apprehensions  of  pastoral 
duty,  broad  and  elevated  views  of  the  nature  and  re- 
lations of  theological  truth,  are  not  sufficient  to 
give  enduring  life  to  the  zeal  of  a  missionary. 
Something  more  than  all  this  is  needed.  There 
must  be  the  grand  aim,  the  living,  undying  purpose, 
of  reconciling  men  to  God,  and  thus  extending  the 
kingdom  of  the  blessed  Redeemer.  There  needs  to 
be  a  real  enthusiasm,  sustained  by  a  spiritualized 
doctrinal  experience,  and  by  the  "  powers  of  the 
world  to  come."  Nothing  short  of  this  will  keep 
the  foreign  missionary  cheerfully  and  long  in  the 
field. 

And  even  with  such  missionaries,  —  who  are  men 


168  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

after  all,  —  it  would  be  disastrous  for  a  mission, 
should  a  well-founded  apprehension  come  over  it  of 
failure  in  the  temporal  support  of  their  families. 
And  it  is  a  great  mercy  to  the  heathen  world,  and 
to  the  churches  as  hound  to  publish  the  gospel 
through  the  whole  extent  of  that  world,  that  the 
providence  and  grace  of  God,  in  the  experience  of 
the  past  fifty  years,  afford  a  wonderful  guarantee  for 
the  earthly  support  of  the  missionary  and  his  wife 
and  children.  It  is  one  of  the  significant  facts  of 
our  times,  for  which  we  should  ascribe  glory  to  God. 


CHAPTER    X. 

HINDRANCES    AT    HOME. 

The  Chief  Hindrance.  —  "Want  of  Information.  —  Pastors  will  find 
this.  —  The  Facts  stated.  —  How  the  Ignorance  is  to  be  removed. 
Causes  that  are  purely  Providential.  —  Human  Agencies.  —  Pas- 
toral.—  Sabbath-schools. — Monthly  Concert  of  Prayer. — Mission- 
ary Publications. — Ecclesiastical  Bodies.  —  Benevolent  Societies. 
Hindrances  resulting  from  Misapprehensions  and  Objections. 
Skepticism. —  Change  in  the  Evidences  of  Piety.  —  Circumstances 
favoring  the  Pastor.  —  The  Responsibility  of  Christian  People. 
Ministers  all  stand  related  to  the  Whole  Work. 

My  present  object  is  not  so  much  to  specify  the  hin- 
drances to  the  work  of  missions  in  the  churches  at 
home,  which  exist  in  the  form  of  misapprehensions 
and  objections,  though  they  will  receive  a  brief  con- 
sideration, as  what  I  conceive  to  be,  in  true  Christians, 
the  root  and  source  of  them  all ;  namely,  ignorance 
of  the  facts  in  missions.  I  am  to  speak,  then,  of 
this  great  obstacle  in  the  Christian  churches  to  the 
progress  of  the  missionary  work,  and  how  it  is  to  be 
removed.  No  department  of  duty,  at  the  present 
time,  is  more  deserving  than  this  of  critical  atten- 
tion from  ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  from  the 
churches. 

I.  I  must  first  illustrate  the  fact  of  this  ignorance. 
The  deficiency  is  in  what  may  be  called  appropriate 


170  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

information.  Specific  duties  demand  appropriate 
facts,  and  these  are  indispensable.  It  was  seeing 
the  wounded  man  who  fell  among  thieves,  which 
called  forth  the  compassionate  ministrations  of  the 
good  Samaritan.  It  was  beholding  the  sin  and 
misery  of  mankind,  that  brought  the  Son  of  God 
from  heaven  on  his  mission  to^earth. 

Pastors  will  be  sure  to  find  among  the  members 
of  their  churches  a  deficiency  in  that  kind  of  in- 
formation, which  is  productive,  through  the  divine 
blessing,  of  a  missionary  spirit.  Our  age  is  indeed 
called,  and  very  properly,  a  reading  age.  ''  The 
popular  taste,"  as  one  has  justly  said,  "is  discur- 
sive ;  travelling  over  the  fields  of  trade,  agriculture, 
commercfe,  and  all  the  productive  industries  of  the 
times.  It  follows  the  diplomacy  of  cabinets,  and 
the  movements  of  armies,  with  the  world's  map 
constantly  in  hand.  It  is  alive  to  the  lessons  of 
science,  the  attractions  of  literature,  and  especially 
the  fascinations  of  fiction,  in  its  dealings  with  life 
and  religion.  And  yet  here  is  a  cause  confessedly 
transcending  every  other,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Christian  mind,  which,  if  we  were  to  estimate  its 
importance  by  what  the  bulk  of  the  people  know 
about  it,  we  should  be  forced  to  set  it  down  as  one 
of  the  most  insignificant  topics  of  the  day."  ^ 

This  is  the  strong  testimony  of  a  writer  in  our 
father-land ;   and   it   is   applicable   to   our  country. 

1  The  Missionary  News,  1866,  p.  110. 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  17 1 

How  little  accurate  information  has  the  great  body 
of  church-members  in  our  best  churches,  as  to  the 
moral  and  religious  condition  of  the  world !  Per- 
haps there  are  no  churches  in  Christendom,  un- 
less we  except  the  Moravian,  which  have  a  better 
missionary  development  than  the  Congregational 
churches  in  the  States  of  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut ;  and  I  draw  my  illustration  specially  from 
them  because  I  have  more  certain  information  con- 
cerning them.  I  believe  that  nowhere  does  a  larger 
proportion  of  Christians  read  about  missions,  and 
pray  for  them,  and  contribute  for  their  support.  Yet 
it  is  known  that  even  in  the  best  of  those  churches, 
nearly  one  fourth  of  the  members  really  contribute 
nothing  for  sending  the  gospel  to  the  heathen,  and 
scarcely  more  than  a  fifth  part  give  attendance  at 
the  monthly  concert  of  prayer  for  the  conversion  of 
the  world.  It  is  believed,  also,  to  be  true  of  those 
churches,  with  few  exceptions,  that  not  more  than 
one  professedly  Christian  family  in  three  or  four 
takes,  or  even  looks  into  the  monthly  journal,  which 
contains  a  definite  and  intelligent  account  of  the 
missions  they  are  pledged  to  support.  The  want  of 
missionary  information  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
would  seem  to  be  also  great,  if  we  judge  by  the  fact,  ^ 
stated  on  high  authority,  that  nearly  one  half  of  the 
four  or  five  thousand  churches,  in  the  year  1865, 
made  no  contribution  whatever  in  support  of  the 
foreign  missionary  cause. 


172  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

I  will  not  presume  to  say  how  far  missionary  pub- 
lications are  actually  read  by  those  who  take  them, 
nor  what  amount  of  missionary  information  is  ac- 
tually imparted  at  the  monthly  concert.  But  I 
believe  the  interest  which  truly  Christian  people 
take  in  the  missionary  work,  is  equal  to  their  cor- 
rect knowledge  of  it.  For  we  must  charitably  sup- 
pose, that  the  apparent  insensibility  of  so  many  real 
Christians  to  the  enlargement  and  glory  of  their 
Redeemer's  kingdom  on  earth,  is  not  because  their 
hearts  are  really  cold  and  dead  to  the  interests  of 
that  kingdom,  but  because  they  know  so  little  about 
it. 

The  great  hindrance  to  the  development  of  a  mis- 
sionary spirit  in  the  evangelical  churches,  is  in  this 
lack  of  appropriate  information.  Its  removal  will,  of 
course,  require  labor  and  time. 

II.  What  are  the  means  and  agencies,  by  which 
this  desirable,  and  even  necessary  end  is  to  be  at- 
tained ? 

1.  I  am  happy  to  say,  in  the  first  place,  by  causes 
that  are  purely  providential.  The  Providence,  which 
has  so  marvelously  opened  the  heathen  workl  for  the 
messengers  of  the  gospel,  as  ah*eady  described,  is 
operating  constantly  in  the  churches,  with  a  steadi- 
ness and  force  like  that  of  the  laws  of  nature.  We 
are  really  part  of  a  great  progressive  system  of  social 
religious  life,  and  are  moving  on  together.     There 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  178 

is  inherent  power  in  facts  and  ideas.  Our  social 
religious  life  is  subject  to  the  great  laws  of  Provi- 
dence. The  stupendous  changes  already  noticed  as 
going  forward  in  the  heathen  world  and  in  Christen- 
dom, as  the  result  of  God's  providence,  should  lead 
us  to  expect  corresponding  changes  in  what  may  be 
called  the  religious  world,  and  especially  in  the 
evangelical  churches.  As  an  illustration  of  this 
onward  movement,  I  refer  to  the  early  fathers  of 
New  England.  Their  writings  show,  that  training 
the  churches  for  the  work  of  converting  the  heathen 
world,  intelligent  and  pious  as  they  were,  scarcely 
formed  any  part  of  their  conceptions  of  the  pastoral 
duty.  And  the  general  tone  of  the  very  best  in- 
formed ecclesiastical  literature  down  to  a  late  period, 
tells  the  same  story.  It  was  so,  also,  in  pastoral  life. 
The  author's  father  was  pastor  of  a  church  for  nearly 
a  score  of  years,  and  joyfully  greeted  the  first  devel- 
opments of  the  missionary  spirit  in  our  own  country. 
Yet  he  did  not  realize  the  duty  of  enlisting  his 
church  in  missions  to  heathen  nations,  until  about 
the  time  of  the  forming  of  the  American  Board.  He 
was  not  blameworthy  in  this.  There  had  been  no 
perceptible  call  for  it.  The  idea  of  that  specific  pas- 
toral duty  had  not  at  that  time  a  place  in  the  public 
mind.  It  was  a  new  idea ;  the  introduction  of  a 
new  power  into  the  churches  of  our  land. 

But  then  commenced  a  remarkable  inflow  of  facts, 
lights,  and  influences  from  the  outer  world  upon  the 


174  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

ministry  and  upon  the  churches  of  our  land ;  form- 
ing one  of  the  religious  characteristics  of  our  age. 
And  these  influences  have  never  ceased  their  inflow, 
like  tidal  waves,  with  a  constantly  increasing  power. 
It  was  with  the  church  of  God,  in  this  respect,  as  it 
is  with  the  sleeping  world  as  day  approaches.  The 
stars  are  shining,  and  the  breaking  day  reaches  hut 
a  few.  But  the  morn  advances,  and,  with  the  rising 
sun,  hamlet,  village,  and  city  awake,  and  go  forth  to 
the  duties  of  life.  The  evangelical  spirit  of  our 
churches  has  been  coming,  and  is  coming,  more  and 
more,  under  this  providential  influence;  nor  may 
we  believe  there  will  be  an  arrest  of  its  progress, 
until  the  condition  and  claims  of  the  heathen  world 
are  generally  recognized  by  the  really  pious,  and 
stand  out  in  the  light  of  a  glorious  day. 

This  providential  inflow  of  missionary  information 
and  influence  upon  the  churches,  and  the  conse- 
quent development  and  growth  of  the  missionary 
spirit  among  pastors  and  people,  should  encourage 
us.  It  is  a  blessed  thing,  and  the  wise  and  faithful 
pastor  will  favor  it  by  every  proper  means. 

2.  Among  the  human  agencies  for  the  removal  of 
this  paralyzing  evil,  the  first  place  is  to  be  given  to 
the  pastoral.  What  should  pastors  do  to  remove 
the  ignorance,  and  consequent  indifference,  of  their 
people  ? 

Their  attention  should  be  early  given  to  the  chil- 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  175 

dren  of  their  charge,  who  need  to  be  educated  to  a 
knowledge  of  what  will  be  their  future  duty  as  Chris- 
tians. There  is  doubtless  a  great  deficiency  here. 
Children  are  believed  to  have  a  less  specific  training 
for  benevolent  giving,  especially  giving  for  foreign 
missions,  now,  than  they  had  when  such  missions 
were  a  new  thing,  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  ;  though, 
in  many  other  respects,  there  has  doubtless  been  a 
progress.  Our  Sabbath-schools,  so  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  learn,  while  they  distinctly  inculcate 
missions  to  the  heathen  as  among  the  duties  pre- 
scribed by  the  gospel,  and  while  many  of  the  schools 
give  for  the  education  of  heathen  youth,  do  yet  allow 
to  modern  missions  no  prominent  place  in  their 
system  of  instruction.  So  far  as  I  have  yet  been 
able  to  learn,  they,  with  here  and  there  an  excep- 
tion, give  it  no  place  at  all ;  excepting  an  occasional 
address  from  a  returned  missionary,  which  is  of 
course  an  excellent  usage.  The  text-books,  in  this 
respect,  seem  to  me  not  to  be  up  to  the  demands  of 
the  times.  I  find  no  distinct  reference  to  modern 
missions  in  any  of  the  text-books  I  have  consulted. 
Nor  have  I  yet  heard  of  any,  which  treat  at  all  of 
the  missions  in  our  day.  I  see  not  how  the  text- 
books in  common  use  would  be  constructed  differ- 
ently, or  the  teaching  be  materially  changed,  were 
there  no  missions  in  existence,  and  were  there  no 
heathen  world  accessible  to  the  churches.  In  a  late 
Sabbath-school  convention,  no  reference  was  made 


176  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

to  this  class  of  duties,  nor  to  the  development 
of  Christian  character  in  the  rising  generation,  as 
having  anything  to  do  with  the  conversion  of  the 
unevangelized  world. 

Yet  certainly  no  Christian  duties  are  more  really 
important,  and  none,  in  this  age,  more  fundamental 
in  the  development  of  Christian  character,  and  as  a 
test  of  its  genuineness.  The  foundations  for  a  broad 
and  elevated  Christian  character  need  to  be  laid  in 
youth.  Then  is  the  time  to  inculcate  the  duty,  to 
awaken  an  interest  in  the  work,  and  to  cultivate  the 
habit  of  giving  for  its  advancement.  If  this  be  not 
done  then,  it  never  will  be  done  effectually.  If  ad- 
ditional text-books  are  needed  for  this  purpose,  let 
them  be  prepared,  and  judiciously  introduced  into 
the  Sabbath-school  instruction. 

Of  course  the  Sabbath-school  library  will  need 
attention.  Sabbath-school  libraries  are  greatly  de- 
ficient in  this  department.  The  reading  has  too 
much  of  fiction,  is  too  sensational,  and  creates  in 
the  minds  of  the  children  a  positive  distaste  for  the 
plain  matter-of-fact  connected  w^ith  the  extension  of 
Christ's  kingdom.  This  is  a  calamitous  result  in 
the  religious  education  of  the  rising  generation,  and 
is  a  dark  omen  for  the  future.  Indeed,  there  is 
probably  no  department  of  influence  in  the  Christian 
Church  of  our  times,  that  needs  more  prompt  and 
thorough  attention,  than  do  these  libraries.^ 

1  There  are  signs  of  improvement.    Mr.  Warren's  Tvodve    Years 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  177 

Missionary  societies  are  sometimes  formed  in 
Sabbath-schools.  Quite  recently  my  attention  has 
been  called  to  a  successful  experiment  of  this  kind 
in  a  town  of  Connecticut,  extended  through  a  score 
of  years.  The  principal  agent  in  the  case  was  the 
superintendent  of  the  school.^  A  missionary  associ- 
ation was  formed  of  the  pupils,  and  became  a  popular 
institution.  Once  in  a  quarter,  the  Sabbath-school 
monthly  concert  was  converted  into  a  missionary 
concert;  when  the  children  were  encouraged  to 
bring  in  written  resolutions,  or  sentiments,  and  lay 
them  on  the  table,  from  whence  they  were  taken 
and  read  in  the  course  of  the  meeting.  They  were 
also  invited  to  select  and  write  out  texts  from  the 
Scriptures,  fitted  to  stimulate  the  missionary  spirit 
of  the  school,  and  these  were  also  read.  From 
samples  of  these  resolutions  and  Scripture  extracts, 
I  judge  that  their  influence  must  have  been  good. 
Reports  were  occasionally  read  by  the  president; 
and  he  availed  himself  of  every  opportunity  to  secure 
addresses  from  returned  missionaries,  and  often  suc- 
ceeded ;  and  some  of  those  speakers,  no  longer 
among  the  living,  whose  memory  is  cherished  by  the 

among  the  Children,  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  literature  for  the 
young.  So  is  Mr.  Parmelee's  Life  Scenes  among  the  Mountains  of 
Ararat.  So,  also,  is  Mr.  Wheeler's  Letters  from  Eden,  or,  Reminiscences 
of  Missionary  Life  in  the  East.  Mr.  Wheeler's  Ten  Years  on  the 
Euphrates,  or,  Primitive  Missionary  Policy  Illustrated,  though  written 
for  adults,  should  be  in  libraries  for  the  young,  as  well  as  the  old. 
1  J.  H.  Stickiiey,  Esq.,  Ilockville,  Ct. 
12 


178  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

churches,  must  have  left  a  salutary  impression  on 
those  youthful  minds. 

In  another  Sabbath-school,  the  missionary  field 
was  divided  among  the  children  of  the  advanced 
classes,  and,  once  a  quarter,  the  Sabbath-school 
monthly  concert  was  devoted  to  missions.  Each  of 
the  children  was  expected  then  to  bring  in  some  fact, 
or  facts,  concerning  his  own  held.  In  this  way  mis- 
sionary information  was  constantly  coming  into  the 
school,  and  a  missionary  spirit  was  promoted. 

As  Sabbath-school  societies  are  educational,  it 
should  be  their  aim  to  train  the  youth  for  the  great 
Christian  work  of  their  future  lives,  and  their  atten- 
tion should  be  directed  to  the  missionary  work  at 
home,  as  well  as  abroad.  The  destitute  of  our  own 
lands,  the  degenerate  churches  of  the  East,  the 
Jews,  the  pagan  nations,  and  the  missions  among 
them,  should  each  receive  their  share  of  attention; 
of  course,  with  the  help  of  maps,  and  other  appro- 
priate illustrations.  All  they  will  need  is  a  presid- 
ing spirit,  well  informed  and  interested  on  the  sub- 
ject of  missions. 

Another  department  of  pastoral  duty  is  the 
monthly  concert  of  prayer  for  the  conversion  of 
the  world.  That  should  be  what  its  name  imports, 
—  a  prayer-meeting  for  missions,  foreign  and  do- 
mestic ;  literally,  for  the  conversion  of  the  world. 
The  information  and  prayers  should  not  be  restricted 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  179 

to  the  missions  of  one  society,  or  of  one  denomina- 
tion, or  to  one  class  of  missions,  nor  to  the  missions 
from  our  own  country.  Moreover,  the  pastor  should 
guard  against  feeling  himself,  or  allowing  his  people 
to  feel,  that  the  meeting  is  unimportant,  much  less 
a  failure,  because  only  a  few  attend  it.  Those  few, 
even  should  they  happen  to  be  chiefly  females,  are 
really,  in  respect  to  the  missionary  cause,  \\hat  the 
"  three  hundred  "  were  to  the  "  ten  thousand,"  in 
Gideon's  army. 

Experience  teaches  that  we  must  not  expect  even 
good  people  to  take  a  very  lively  interest  in  the  in- 
formation given  at  the  monthly  concert,  while  they 
know  little  of  the  geography  and  history  of  missions. 
We  remember  how  the  newspapers,  in  the  late  war, 
accompanied  their  accounts  of  battles  and  sieges 
with  maps  and  illustrations.  Wliile  the  only  effect- 
ual remedy  for  ignorance  in  missionary  geography 
is  early  training,  much  can  be  done  in  the  mission- 
ary prayer-meeting  itself,  by  pastor  and  others, 
through  a  judicious  use  of  maps  and  other  illustra- 
tions. 

The  churches  in  some  parts  of  our  land  seem, 
just  now,  to  be  somewhat  in  a  transition  state  as  to 
their  religious  habits.  In  many  places,  the  afternoon 
preaching  service  is  giving  place  to  the  Sabbath- 
school;  and  if  the  second  preaching  service  be  not 
relinquished  altogether,  it  is  transferred  to  the  even- 
ing, to  the  no  small  peril  of  the  monthly  concert, 


180  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

where  that  meeting  has  been  held  on  Sabbath  even- 
ing. What  shall  be  done  in  this  case?  This 
monthly  missionary  prayer-meeting  was  the  out- 
growth of  the  missionary  spirit,  and  is  believed  to 
be  quite  necessary  to  the  life  and  vigor  of  that  spirit. 
It  has  been  asked,  whether  the  weekly  church  prayer- 
meeting  may  not  be  converted,  once  a  month,  into  a 
missionary  prayer-meeting.  That  has  been  tried, 
but  in  many  cases  it  has  been  a  short-lived  experi- 
ment. The  first  Sabbath  in  the  month  is  the  best 
time  for  the  concert;  and  might  not  the  Sabbath 
evening  preaching  service,  once  a  month,  where  it 
exists,  be  so  modified  as  to  meet  the  exigency? 
This,  also,  has  in  some  cases  been  tried,  and  it  only 
needs  that  pastor  and  people  enter  heartily  into  the 
arrangement.  Take  the  broad  view,  just  now  inti- 
mated, of  the  field  as  occupied  by  the  various  socie- 
ties at  home  and  abroad,  of  the  whole  active  efibrts 
of  the  church,  and  let  the  people  be  at  the  expense 
of  providing  their  minister  with  the  needful  sources 
of  information,  and  the  needful  illustrations,  and 
there  would  be  no  serious  difficulty. 

Much  will  of  course  depend  on  the  manner  of 
conducting  the  monthly  concert.  It  is  the  result 
of  my  own  experience  and  observation,  that  there  is 
no  more  safety  in  going  into  this  meeting  without 
previous  preparation,  than  there  is  into  the  pulpit  on 
the  Sabbath.  Indeed,  permanent  success  in  that 
meeting  requires  that  this  department  of  pastoral 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  181 

duty  should  by  no  means  be  forgotten  in  the  habits 
of  study,  which  are  cultivated  in  the  seminary  course. 
Men,  who  go  through  the  seminary  in  habitual 
neglect  of  the  intelligence  concerning  which  I  now 
speak,  will  be  likely  to  go  through  their  ministerial 
life  in  the  same  manner.  But  with  the  established 
habit  of  keeping  the  monthly  prayer-meeting  in 
view  in  the  miscellaneous  reading  of  the  month,  and 
with  a  hearty  interest  in  the  subject,  an  adequate 
preparation  for  the  monthly  concert  will  not  be 
found  to  interfere  with  the  weekly  preparation  for 
the  Sabbath  pulpit. 

I  am  not  in  favor  of  reading  much  at  that  meet- 
ing, and  what  reading  there  is  should,  for  the  most 
part,  be  avowedly  illustrative  of  some  point  or 
points  that  have  been  distinctly  stated.  The  ob- 
ject is  to  awaken  an  interest,  rather  than  fully  to 
satisfy  it,  and  thus  lead  the  people  to  read  for  them- 
selves. And  there  should  be  so  much  of  intelligent 
and  appropriate  remark  by  the  pastor,  as  will  make 
the  reading  of  the  people  at  home  more  interesting 
and  profitable,  and  also  induce  those  who  thus  read 
to  value  the  prayer-meeting.  Pastors  may  have  the 
world  before  them,  with  the  whole  range  of  efforts 
to  evangelize  it,  as  also  the  opened  books  of  provi- 
dence and  grace,  from  which  to  draw  materials.  It 
is  often  the  case  that  lay  members  of  the  church 
might  materially  aid  in  giving  the  intelligence. 
But  in  this  meeting  there  is  and  can  be  no  ade- 


182  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

quate  substitute  for  the  pastor.  You  might  even 
bring  in  secretaries  of  the  great  missionary  socie- 
ties, with  autograph  letters  of  missionaries  in  their 
hands ;  yet  if  ordinarily  there  be  uncertainty  as  to 
the  pastor's  attendance,  or  doubt  as  to  the  reality  of 
his  interest,  the  meeting  will  not  be  a  success. 

The  use  of  maps  and  other  illustrations  is  so  im- 
portant in  the  monthly  concert,  that,  if  they  cannot 
be  otherwise  obtained,  it  would  be  well  to  employ  for 
this  purpose  some  part  of  the  contributions  on  that 
occasion.  The  well-known  missionary  maps  of  Mr. 
Bidwell  are  invaluable.  Those  prepared  by  Profes- 
sor Guyot  are  not  missionary  maps,  yet,  having 
some  special  excellences,  a  pastor,  conversant  with 
the  geography  and  history  of  missions,  may  use 
them  to  advantage. 

It  might  be  well,  occasionally,  to  employ  the  skill 
of  young  amateur  artists  in  the  parish  to  furnish 
rough  drawings  of  the  more  interesting  illustrations 
of  the  pagan  world,  to  be  used  at  the  missionary 
prayer-meeting.  The  young  artists  themselves  will 
at  any  rate  be  interested. 

Another  department  of  pastoral  duty,  is  in  respect 
to  the  various  missionary  publications  of  the  day. 
In  this  important  department,  many  a  pastor,  not 
having  made  up  his  mind  what  he  ought  to  do,  does 
nothing,  and  the  whole  is  left  to  chance,  that  most 
irresponsible  and   inefficient  of  agents.     It  is   not 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  183 

recommended  that  the  pastor  hecome  an  agent  for 
any  of  the  publications.  All  he  needs  to  do  is,  by  a 
legitimate  pastoral  influence  to  create  a  desire,  a 
feeling  of  necessity  for  the  knowledge,  and  then  let 
it  be  distinctly  known  how  that  knowledge  may  be 
obtained,  and  his  end  is  gained.  The  religious 
newspaper,  though  important  in  its  place,  does  not 
and  cannot  supersede  the  necessity  for  the  mission- 
ary monthly;  and  the  missionary  monthly  will  be 
more  likely  to  be  valued  and  read,  if  paid  for,  than 
if  received  as  a  gratuity;  but  is  better  as  a  gra- 
tuity, than  not  at  all. 

3.  It  is  proper  to  say  a  word  concerning  the  meet- 
ings of  ecclesiastical  bodies.  In  some  portions  of 
New  England  they  seem  not  to  be  just  what  they 
should  be  in  relation  to  the  benevolent  movements 
of  the  church,  since  they  cling  so  tenaciously  to  tra- 
ditional usages.  Time  is  given  grudgingly  to  the 
benevolent  operations  of  the  church,  as  if  they  had 
no  right  to  it.  It  is  much  as  if  the  grand  object  of 
Christian  churches  was  self-defense,  self-preserva- 
tion, self-edification.  This  is  the  old  feeling  and 
habit,  transmitted  from  former  generations.  The 
remedy  is  with  the  pastors.  The  Christian  Church 
is  not  a  fortress,  nor  a  garrison ;  it  is  an  army  in 
the  field,  intent  upon  the  enemy.  I  know  not 
whether  a  similar  lack  of  practical  interest  exists  in 
ecclesiastical  meetings  elsewhere.     But  if  the  great 


184  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

Christian  work  providentially  devolved  on  the  church, 
finds  only  a  reluctant  place  in  the  large  ecclesiastical 
bodies,  how  can  it  be  otherwise  in  tlie  local  churches  ? 

4.  A  word  concerning  the  relations  of  pastors  to 
benevolent  societies.  These  relations  are  very  direct 
and  simple.  The  benevolent  societies,  whether  ex- 
isting in  the  form  of  ecclesiastical  boards,  as  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  or  as  voluntary  boards  or  so- 
cieties, as  in  the  Congregational  body,  are  indis- 
pensable auxiliaries  to  the  churches,  and  the  pastor 
avails  himself  of  their  aid,  so  far  as  he  deems  it  ex- 
pedient, for  increasing  the  knowledge  and  develop- 
ing the  benevolence  of  his  people.  The  churches 
have  now  so  long  acted  through  them,  and  in  every 
possible  way  recognized  their  agency,  that,  for  the 
purposes  for  which  these  organizations  exist,  they 
have  come  really  to  form  a  part  of  our  ecclesiastical 
system.  They  are,  as  has  been  already  affirmed,  an 
integral  part  of  it.  And  this  is  alike  true  of  all  the 
larger  institutions.  The  Board  of  Missions  of  the 
Old  School  Presbyterian  General  Assembly,  and  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, are  both,  in  this  respect,  on  the  same  footing. 
Each  of  them,  in  their  respective  and  appropriate 
spheres,  performs  services,  which  neither  of  the 
large  ecclesiastical  bodies  of  the  laud  can  possibly 
perform ;  and  thus  the  churches,  acting  through 
them,  accomplish  the  great  evangelical  duties  of  the 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  185 

day.  And  it  is  a  sign  of  progress  that  the  nature, 
relations,  and  duties  of  these  benevolent  agencies 
are  better  understood,  and  more  highly  appreciated 
now,  than  they  once  were. 

III.  I  now  state  briefly  some  of  the  more  im- 
portant misapprehensions  and  objections,  growing 
out  of  a  want  of  correct  information,  which  hin- 
der the  development  of  the  missionary  life  in  our 
churches. 

The  first  I  shall  mention  is  this  —  that  the  heathen 
are  so  very  degraded  and  wicked,  as  to  be  unworthy 
of  the  great  eflfort  that  is  necessary  to  give  them  the 
gospel. 

Another,  not  so  often  raised  as  formerly,  is,  that 
the  expense  of  money  and  life  in  the  foreign  mis- 
sions is  more  than  we  can  afford. 

Another,  heard  less  frequently  than  it  once  was, 
but  frequently  operating  as  a  silent  influence,  is,  that 
missions  have  had  but  little  success. 

It  is  sometimes  objected,  that  but  a  small  part  of 
the  contributions  actually  reaches  the  heathen. 

Another  objection  has  a  lodgment  in  many  a  mind, 
that  would  hesitate  to  give  it  utterance ;  that  the 
heathen  will  not  be  lost  without  the  gospel,  and 
therefore  it  is  unkind  to  send  the  gospel  to  them. 

It  is  further  objected,  that  charity  begins  at 
home ;  that  it  were  better  to  bestow  the  money  and 
labor  on  home  missions ;  that  we  must  take  care  of 


186  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

our  own  great  country,  where  we  have  as  much  as 
we  can  do;  that  our  country  is  worth  a  score  of 
heathen  nations,  etc.  The  objection  assumes  a  pro- 
tean form  ;  but  the  amount  of  it  is,  that  we  shall  be 
more  in  the  way  of  our  duty,  and  be  doing  more  for 
our  own  growth  in  grace,  for  the  spiritual  interests 
of  our  own  nation,  and  for  the  building  up  of  the 
Redeemer's  kingdom,  by  restricting  our  evangelical 
labors  within  the  bounds  of  our  own  country,  and 
neglecting  the  world  at  large. 

Some  people  believe  that  the  conversion  of  the 
world  is  nofc  to  be  looked  for  in  the  present  dispensa- 
tion, nor  to  be  accomplished  by  the  present  agencies ; 
that  Christ's  advent  is  to  be  pre-millennial ;  that  the 
world  will  grow  worse,  instead  of  better,  till  his  com- 
ing ;  which  is  to  be  sudden,  and  attended  by  convul- 
sions; that  the  wicked  are  then  to  be  destroyed; 
and  that  the  Jews  are  to  be  miraculously  converted, 
and  made  the  favored  people  under  this  new  Mes- 
sianic reign,  with  Jerusalem  for  the  capital.  All  I 
shall  say  in  respect  to  this  is,  that  it  absurdly  makes 
certain  earnestly  contested  interpretations  of  proph- 
ecy as  to  Christ's  second  coming,  and  not  his  ex- 
press command  to  "  preach  the  gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture," the  rule  of  action  in  this  great  mattei". 

Upon  the  other  objections  I  shall  make  a  few 
general  remarks. 

As  to  the  degraded  and  wicked  condition  of  the 
heathen,  it  will  suffice  to  say  —  that  Christ  certainly 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  187 

commands  his  gospel  to  be  preached  to  the  heathen  ; 
that,  for  the  most  part,  they  are  no  more  degraded 
and  wicked  than  were  our  own  wild  and  ferocious  an- 
cestors of  Druidical  times  ;  and  that,  in  point  of  fact, 
the  gospel  does  elevate  them. 

As  to  the  cost  of  life  and  of  money  in  missions,  it 
may  he  replied  —  that  the  cost  of  life,  on  the  whole, 
has  been  scarcely  greater  in  the  missions  abroad, 
than  in  the  ministry  at  home.  The  average  mis- 
sionary life  in  India,  fifteen  years  ago,  was  sixteen 
years  and  a  half,  and  it  is  longer  now.  In  1858,  the 
more  than  sixty  ordained  foreign  missionaries  from 
the  Andover  Seminary,  then  living,  had  been  prose- 
cuting their  work  on  an  average  of  seventeen  years. 

As  to  the  pecuniary  cost  of  missions,  it  is  easy  to 
show,  that  the  country  is  in  no  danger  of  being  im- 
poverished by  them.  The  expenditure  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  for  fifty-six  years,  did  not  exceed  the  cost 
of  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  railroad  in  Massachu- 
setts ;  and  was  nearly  three  millions  less  than  the 
average  expense  of  a  single  week  in  the  late  war. 
The  cost  of  an  iron-clad  man-of-war  was  double  the 
yearly  expenditure  of  the  American  Board.  The 
cost  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  mission,  for  the  whole 
forty-six  years  of  its  existence,  was  less  than  that  of 
an  exploring  expedition  of  about  three  years,  under 
Commodore  Wilkes,  sent  by  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment into  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

The  objection,  that  but  a  small  part  of  the  money 


188  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

contributed  reaches  the  missions,  is  founded  on  sheer 
ignorance.  In  one  of  our  Western  States,  a  banker 
when  called  upon  by  the  collector  for  a  subscription 
for  foreign  missions,  gave  him  ten  dollars  as  his 
annual  contribution,  and  then  gave  him  fifteen  dollars 
more  —  to  aid,  as  he  said,  in  sending  it  to  them.  He 
meant,  that  it  cost  more  to  send  his  donation  to  the 
mission,  than  the  donation  was  worth.  This  wg-s 
wholly  a  misapprehension.  The  cost  for  everything 
in  the  administration  of  one  of  our  large  Missionary 
Boards,  including  every  species  of  agency,  is  only 
about  eight  per  cent,  of  its  receipts.  Of  every  dollar 
contributed,  therefore,  ninety-two  cents  find  their 
way  to  the  missions.  The  banker  already  mentioned 
is  said  once  to  have  remitted  his  donation  directly  to 
the  mission  in  Turkey,  but  he  gained  nothing  by  the 
operation.  Indeed,  it  is  not  possible  for  this  objection 
to  be  entertained  by  one  who  reads  the  well  authen- 
ticated treasury  reports  of  the  missionary  societies. 

The  proof  that  the  heathen  are  not  saved  without 
the  gospel,  is  in  the  explicit  command  of  Christ  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  them ;  in  the  argument  of  the 
Apostle  Paul  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  Epistle  to 
the  Romans  ;  in  his  own  labors  among  the  heathen  ; 
and  in  the  uniform  testimony  of  missionaries  to  the 
unholy  lives  and  characters  of  the  heathen  of  our 
day,  and  to  their  acknowledged  consciousness  of  sin 
and  guilt.  The  assumed  unkindness  in  sending  the 
gospel  to  the  heathen,  is  on  the  assumption  that 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  189 

many  of  them,  by  rejecting  it,  will  incur  a  deeper 
condemnation.  This  must  be  admitted ;  but  then 
if  the  heathen  perish  without  the  gospel,  and  may 
be  saved  by  it,  there  is  obviously  the  same  reason  for 
preaching  the  gospel  to  them,  as  there  is  for  preach- 
ing it  to  the  ungodly  in  Christian  lands. 

What  can  a  pastor  say  to  objections  founded  on 
the  exclusive  claims  of  our  own  great  country  ?  An 
eminent  clergyman  residing  in  Missouri  once  said, 
that  the  religion  they  needed  for  the  West,  is  one 
"  strong  enough  for  the  conversion  of  the  world." 
And  we  might  well  ask,  whether  our  home  missions 
would  really  be  prosecuted  with  their  present  vigor, 
had  we  not,  at  the  same  time,  missions  in  Asia, 
Africa,  and  the  Islands  of  the  sea?  The  principle 
underlying  this  objection,  were  it  to  govern  the 
churches  throughout  our  land,  would  be  a  monstrous 
national  selfishness,  destructive  of  every  generous 
Christian  feeling.  It  is  important  to  remark,  that 
this  objection  is  generally  made  under  an  erroneous 
impression  as  to  the  proportion  actually  contributed 
to  these  two  branches  of  the  same  great  work.  Dr. 
Mullens  says  that,  in  one  hundred  and  fourteen  Lon- 
don churches  in  1865,  not  more  than  one  fourth  of 
the  benevolent  contributions  were  for  foreign  mis- 
sions ;  and  that  in  1866,  out  of  every  <;S100  contrib- 
uted by  eighty  Congregational  churches  in  London 
and  the  country,  only  ,£15,  or  less  than  one  sixth, 
were  for  foreign  missions.     In  the  Free  Church  of 


190  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

Scotland,  during  ten  years,  only  six  per  cent,  of  the 
sum  contributed  for  religious  objects  went  for  for- 
eign missions.  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  what  is 
the  proportion  in  our  own  country.  But  it  should 
be  remembered,  that  every  foreign  missionary  society 
combines  a  number  of  objects,  while  what  is  actually 
the  home  missionary  work  is  divided  among  several 
societies,  as  the  Home  Missionary,  Church-building, 
Sabbath-school,  Education,  etc.  We  are  glad  to  feel 
assured,  in  the  existing  relations  of  the  unevangel- 
ized  world  to  the  church,  that  the  true  church  of 
Christ  cannot  have  an  exclusive  regard  for  either 
home  or  foreign  missions,  since  the  spirit  of  the 
true  church,  so  far  as  informed  on  the  subject,  will 
necessarily  be  responsive  to  the  all-embracing  com- 
mand of  its  Redeemer  and  King.  I  shall  be  excused 
for  the  utterance  of  my  own  belief,  that  the  subver- 
sion of  foreign  missions  would  be  destroying  the 
great  wheel,  in  the  vast  machine  of  many  wheels,  of 
which  our  benevolent  system  is  composed. 

Such  are  some  of  the  causes,  which  keep  the 
churches  from  putting  forth  their  energies  for  the 
extension  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom.  It  is  thus 
that  skepticism,  in  one  form  or  another,  paralyzes 
the  arm  of  the  church.  Let  a  man  doubt  whether 
the  heathen  deserve  our  sympathy,  whether  they 
are  in  perishing  need  of  the  gospel,  or  whether  they 
will  be  really  benefited  by  it,  and   you  cannot  in- 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME.  191 

terest  him  in  sending  them  the  gospel.  Let  a  man 
doubt  whether  God  really  intends  to  accomplish  the 
conversion  of  the  world,  w  hether  the  time  has  really 
come  for  engaging  in  the  work,  or  the  efficacy  of 
the  means  employed,  and,  until  these  doubts  are 
removed,  you  cannot  have  his  hearty  cooperation.^ 

I  need  not  take  time  to  prove,  that  upon  pastors 
of  the  churches  rests  especially  the  duty  of  remov- 
ing these  obstacles.  This  they  can  do  by  seeing  that 
their  people  are  properly  informed  as  to  the  facts, 
which  bear  so  strongly  on  their  personal  duty  in  this 
peculiar  age  of  the  world.  We  are  to  aim  at  two 
things;  correct  information,  and  its  bearing  upon 
the  development  of  Christian  character.  The  evi- 
dences of  personal  piety  need  now  to  be  reinvesti- 
gated and  reconstructed.  In  former  ages,  the  tests 
of  Christian  character  were  persecution,  imprison- 
ment, the  rack,  the  stake ;  they  were  suffering  in 
some  form.  Piety  and  the  profession  of  it  stood  con- 
nected, in  God's  providence,  with  losses  and  priva- 
tions. But  times  have  changed.  Piety  and  the  pro- 
fession of  it  are  now  respected.  The  grand  test  of 
piety  .now,  is  the  life  of  faith,  benevolence,  giving 
for  the  cause  of  Christ,  self-denying  efforts. 

The  treatises  on  this  subject  need  to  have  an  addi- 
tional chapter.  Few  Christian  people  yet  realize  the 
vast  change  there  has  been  in  their  position  and 
relations,  as  regards  the  world  perishing  for  lack  of 

'  See  Dr  J.  P  Thompson's  Introduction  to  Foster's  Essay,  p.  58. 


192  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

the  gospel,  nor  the  effect  of  this  change  upon  the 
evidences  of  their  own  personal  piety.  Many  a 
church-member  has  a  comfortable  hope  of  heaven, 
while  doing  almost  nothing  for  extending  Christ's 
kingdom  and  the  blessedness  of  his  reign,  and  feel- 
ing no  interest  in  the  cause.  This  might  have  been 
safe  for  the  soul  in  the  days  of  Richard  Baxter,  or 
even  in  the  days  of  our  grandparents.  But  God  has 
brought  a  mighty  change  over  our  situation,  and 
our  relations ;  and  if  any  choose  to  be  ignorant  of 
the  fact,  it  is  a  willful  ignorance,  that  will  not  avail 
in  the  great  day.  In  any  view,  it  is  disloyalty  to  the 
Lord  of  Glory.  Just  here  is  the  grand  defect  in  the 
practical  Christianity  of  our  age.  It  responds  not, 
as  it  should  do,  to  the  call  of  God's  providence. 
Nothing  can  be  more  certain,  than  that  the  vast 
changes  in  the  unevangelized  world  do  immensely 
concern  us  as  Christians.  And  it  is  time  that  God's 
ministers  should  speak  out  plainly  on  this  subject. 
Satan  hath  great  wrath,  because  of  the  shortness  of 
his  time.  By  infidel  philosophy  he  is  seeking  to 
gain  possession  of  the  human  understanding,  and  to 
fortify  it  against  all  approaches  of  the  truth  to  the 
hearts  of  men,  and  his  emissaries  are  going  into  all 
the  world.  Moreover,  the  Roman  hierarchy  is  pre- 
pared and  determined  everywhere  to  oppose  the  ex- 
tension of  Christ's  spiritual  kingdom,  and  will  be 
the  grand  opponent  of  the  true  church  in  its  effort 
to  extend  Messiah's  reign  ;  and  if  successful  in  that, 


HINDRANCES  AT  HOME,  193 

it  will  be  almost  sure  to  recover  once  more  its  lost 
domiuion  in  Christendom. 

Pastors  have  much  encouragement,  then,  ih  view 
of  those  providential  tidal  waves  of  influence  from 
the  unevangelized  world  already  spoken  of,  which 
are  flowing  in  upon  the  churches,  and  now  more 
than  ever.  In  most  churches  they  will  flnd  there 
has  been  a  favorable  beginning,  and  some  progress 
in  the  right  direction  ;  that  there  is  no  longer 
the  profound  indifference  or  the  early  opposition  to 
missions.  Perhaps  they  will  find  that  one  half,  or 
even  more,  of  their  church-members  already  contrib- 
ute something  for  the  cause.  Perhaps  as  many  as 
a  third  of  them,  and  those  the  best,  assemble  at  the 
monthly  missionary  prayer-meeting.  Perhaps  even 
a  larger  number  are  more  or  less  in  the  habit  of 
reading  missionary  intelligence.  Possibly  a  member 
of  the  church  is  a  missionary,  or  among  the  honored 
dead  fallen  in  the  service. 

If  all  pastors  of  the  churches  could  be  induced 
to  take  the  decided  stand  with  their  people,  which 
many  have  taken,  —  educating  them  for  the  work 
of  missions,  and  urging  them  forward  in  it,  —  we 
should  soon  have  the  men  and  the  funds  that  are 
needed,  and  great  would  be  the  joy  among  the  peo- 
ple of  God. 

13 


CHAPTER    XI. 

DIFFUSION   OF   MISSIONS. 

Human  and  Divine  Agency.  —  Import  of  the  Divine  Command. 
Important  Facilities.  —  Progress  in  Missionary  Explorations.  — 
Progress  in  Missionary  Occupation ;  in  Western  Asia ;  in  India. 
Vast  System  of  Railways  in  India.  —  Their  Bearing  on  Missions  in 
India.  —  Progress  in  Eastern  Asia  ;  in  the  Pacific  Ocean ;  in  Africa. 
Great  Reduction  in  the  Cost  of  Occupation.  —  Progress  in  giving 
the  Bible,  and  a  Religious  Literature.  —  Advance  in  Contributions. 
Recent  Date  of  the  Missions,  —  The  Forces  now  in  the  Field. 
Portions  of  the  Unevangelized  World  not  yet  reached.  —  General 
Conclusion. 

Two  things  in  missions  are  perfectly  distinct,  and 
yet  are  intimately  connected.  These  are  the  human 
agency,  enjoined  hy  the  command  of  our  Lord  to 
"  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature ;  "  and  the 
divine  agency,  or  God's  blessing  on  the  missions,  in- 
volved in  the  promise,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you,"  The 
latter  includes  the  providential  opening  of  the  un- 
evangelized world  to  the  gospel,  the  preparation  of 
Christendom  for  the  work,  and  the  uprising  of  the 
Evangelical  Church,  which  were  the  themes  that 
first  claimed  our  attention. 

I  propose  now  to  show  what  progress  has  been 
made  in  obeying  the  Saviour's  command,  to  "go 
into  all  the  world."     This  command,  as  recorded  by 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS.  195 

the  different  Evangelists,  reads  thus:  "Teach  all 
nations  ;  "  **  Preach  repentance  and  remission  of  sins 
in  my  name  among  all  nations ; "  "  Go  into  all  the 
world ;  "  "  Preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature." 
The  duty  therefore  prescribed  for  the  people  of 
God,  is  a  proclamation  of  the  gospel,  as  far  as  may 
be,  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  v^^orld. 

As  has  been  already  remarked,  we  have  a  practical 
illustration  of  the  duty  devolved  on  Christians  in  the 
mission  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  as  it  was  set  forth  in  the 
fourth  chapter.  He  labored  in  the  great  centres  of 
influence,  planting  in  them  self-propagating  churches, 
and  he  and  his  associates  did  what  more  they  could 
in  the  adjacent  regions. 

As  auxiliary  to  the  progress  of  the  Evangelical 
Church  in  planting  its  missions,  I  mention  two 
important  facilities,  which  have  been  providentially 
secured. 

One  is  a  recognition  of  the  claim  of  missionaries 
to  the  protection  of  their  own  governments.  This 
protection  even  the  nominally  Protestant  Christian 
governments  were  at  first  backward  to  give.  The 
earliest  formal  and  official  recognition  of  it  in  this 
country  known  to  me  was  in  the  year  1842.  Daniel 
Webster  was  then  Secretary  of  State,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  a  representation  made  to  the  government 
in  that  year,  he  thus  wrote  to  the  Minister  resident 
at  Constantinople :  — 


196  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

"  It  has  been  represented  to  this  department,"  says 
Mr.  Webster,  "  that  the  American  missionaries,  re- 
siding in  the  Ottoman  dominions,  do  not  receive 
from  your  Legation  that  aid  and  protection,  to 
which,  as  citizens  of  the  United  States,  they  feel 
themselves  entitled;  and  I  have  been  directed  by 
the  President,  who  is  profoundly  interested  in  the 
matter,  to  call  your  immediate  attention  to  the  sub- 
ject, and  to  instruct  you  to  omit  no  occasion,  where 
your  interference  in  behalf  of  such  persons  may  be- 
come necessary  or  useful,  to  extend  to  them  all  proper 
succor  and  attentions,  of  which  they  may  stand  in 
need,  in  the  same  manner  that  you  would  to  other 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  who,  as  merchants, 
visit  or  dwell  in  Turkey." 

This  claim  of  the  foreign  missionary  for  protection 
in  the  lawful  prosecution  of  his  mission,  was  after- 
wards distinctly  recognized  by  successive  Secretaries 
of  State,  and  the  usage  may  be  regarded  as  now 
settled. 

Years  after  this,  the  four  great  powers  of  Chris- 
tendom negotiated  the  memorable  treaty  with  China, 
noticed  at  the  outset  of  our  discussion,  and  made 
express  provision  for  the  protection  of  both  mission- 
aries and  their  converts.^ 

While  we  should  rely  for  protection  in  the  work 
of  missions  mainly  on  the  Lord  of  missions,  it  shows 
an  important  advance  in  our  work,  when  the  "  Roman 

1  See  Chapt^-r  I. 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS.  197 

citizenship  "  of  the  missionary  is  recognized  hy  Chris- 
tian governments. 

I  also  notice  a  remarkable  change  in  the  secular 
newspapers,  as  regards  the  benevolent  operations 
of  the  church,  and  missions  in  particular.  Mr. 
Sydney  E.  Morse  states,  in  his  "  Memorabilia "  of 
his  father,  that  the  institution  of  the  "  Boston  Re- 
corder," in  the  year  1816,  induced  as  many  as  twenty 
country  newspapers  to  go  into  the  publication  of 
religious  intelligence.  According  to  my  recollec- 
tion, this  practice  afterwards  declined,  and  the  more 
influential  newspapers  in  the  cities  did  not  come 
into  it  for  many  years  afterwards.  There  ought  to 
be  a  more  specific  record  of  the  manner  in  which 
this  was  effected,  than  I  am  able  to  make  from  per- 
sonal recollection.  I  think  it  was  in  the  year  1844, 
that  the  late  Rev.  Austin  Dickinson  began  his  judi- 
cious and  successful  efforts  to  enlist  the  commercial 
newspapers  in  the  publication  of  religious  intelli- 
gence. Believing  that  this  would  be  advantageous 
to  them,  as  well  as  to  the  cause  of  religion,  he  made 
an  engagement  with  certain  leading  journals  to  pre- 
pare for  them  brief  articles  of  religious  news,  such 
as  he  deemed  suitable  for  their  columns,  with  a 
promise  of  their  insertion.  The  way  being  thus 
opened,  the  same  promise  was  obtained  from  editors 
of  other  papers ;  and  he  at  length  sent  around  more 
extended  summaries  in  printed  slips.  The  editors 
became  at  length  convinced  of  the  propriety  and 


198  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

policy  of  obtaining  the  intelligence  through  paid  re- 
porters sent  for  the  purpose  to  attend  the  meetings 
of  benevolent  societies.  It  was  by  efforts  such  as 
these,  that  the  secular  newspapers  were  gradually 
led  to  open  their  columns  for  religious  news.  The 
marvelous  progress  since  made  in  this  direction  is 
evinced  by  the  fact,  that  the  newspapers  in  the  city 
of  Chicago,  in  1865,  made  full  and  accurate  reports, 
from  day  to  day,  of  the  proceedings  and  speeches  at 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Board  in  that 
city.  It  is  easy  to  see  what  a  prodigious  gain  this 
access  to  the  secular  newspapers  is,  for  the  cause  of 
religion  and  of  missions.^ 

In  proceeding  to  state  the  progress  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Church  in  measures  for  obeying  the  Saviour's 
command,  I  notice,  — 

1.  The  progress  made  in  special  missionary  ex- 
plorations. These  have  been  found  indispensable  to 
the  advantageous  occupation  of  an  unevangelized 
country  by  missions.  A  mercantile  house  sends  a 
man  to  explore  for  it  who  is  skilled  in  trade;  the 
warrior  sends  a  soldier  ;  the  missionary  society  sends 
a  missionary.  There  is  a  great  deal  in  the  point  of 
view.  Our  traveller  must  have  the  eye,  the  ear,  the 
heart  of  a  missionary.  Lion-hunters  would  not 
answer  our  purpose  in  Africa ;  nor  would  the  mem- 
bers of  the  London  Anthropological  Society.   Nor  can 

^  i  See  Appendix  II. 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS.  199 

we  implicitly  rely,  in  such  a  country  as  China,  so  far 
as  vital  points  in  missions  are  concerned,  upon  the  re- 
ports of  unmarried  Jesuits,  with  their  unscrupulous 
concealment  of  their  own  character  and  objects,  and 
the  half-Christianized  Buddhism  of  their  religion. 

We  must  make  our  own  surveys.  We  do  it  geo- 
graphically, that  we  may  know  where  to  find  the 
people,  and  what  physical  causes  affect  their  pursuits 
and  characters,  and  will  facilitate  or  obstruct  our 
operations.  We  do  it  statistically,  to  know  the 
number  of  youth  to  be  gathered  into  schools ;  of 
families  to  be  supplied  with  the  Bible ;  of  cities  and 
villages  to  be  furnished  with  the  stated  preaching  of 
the  gospel ;  and  of  souls  to  whom  a  Saviour's  love 
must  be  proclaimed.  We  investigate  the  social 
relations  of  the  people,  in  order  to  know  the  ties  of 
family,  neighborhood,  business,  pleasure,  govern- 
ment, and  religion,  which  bind  them  together ;  and 
also,  what  repellant  influences  there  are  to  produce 
"hatred,  variance,  emulation,  wrath,  strife,  envy- 
ings,  and  such  like ;  "  of  which  we  are  assured,  that 
"they  which  do  such  things  shall  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God." 

That  to  which  I  would  call  special  attention  is,  the 
extent  to  which  this  work  of  missionary  explora- 
tion has  been  carried.  I  can  give  only  a  brief  illus- 
tration. Somewhat  more  than  forty  years  ago,  the 
late  Dr.  John  C.  Brigham,  afterwards  Secretary  of 
the  American  Bible  Society,  was  sent  by  the  Ameri- 


200  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

cau  Board  to  Buenos  Ayres,  in  South  America,  with 
instructions  to  cross  the  Southern  continent,  and 
visit  the  republics  along  the  Western  slopes,  as  far 
north  as  Mexico ;  which  occupied  him  about  two 
years.  Dr.  Brigham's  report,  published  in  the 
"  Missionary  Herald,"  was  adverse  to  an  occupation 
at  that  time,  mainly  on  the  ground  of  the  predomi- 
nant influence  of  the  Popish  priesthood  in  the  sev- 
eral governments.  The  world  has  moved  forward 
since  then,  and  recent  missionary  explorations  in 
several  of  these  countries  have  reached  a  more  favor- 
able result.  Ten  years  later,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Parker 
was  sent,  by  the  American  Board,  with  some  others, 
across  the  continent  of  North  America,  to  see  what 
could  be  done  for  the  Indian  tribes  on  either  side  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  investigation  was  pushed 
to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  and  was  the  first  step 
in  the  deuionstration,  afterwards  made  by  a  mission- 
ary of  the  same  Board,  of  a  practicable  wagon-road 
through  the  Rocky  Mountains;  which  demonstra- 
tion history  will  testify  to  have  saved  Oregon,  the 
Washington  Territory,  the  Columbia  River,  and  per- 
haps even  the  golden  mines  of  California,  to  the 
United  States.  In  1829,  the  Rev.  Eli  Smith  and 
myself  traversed  the  Peloponnesus  and  Greek  Islands. 
Out  of  the  exploration  just  mentioned  grew  directly 
the  more  important  one  of  Messrs.  Smith  and 
Dwight  through  Asia  Minor,  Armenia,  and  Georgia, 
as  far  as  to  the  region  inhabited  by  the  Nestorian 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS.  201 

Christians  of  Persia;  who  before  that  time  were 
scarcely  known  to  the  modern  Christian  Church. 
Tlie  whole  of  Palestine,  and  a  large  portion  of  Asia 
Minor  and  Syria,  had  previously  been  surveyed  by 
missionaries  of  the  American  Board,  and  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  as  were  also  several 
districts  of  Noi-thern  Africa.  There  has  since  been 
a  missionary  survey  to  some  extent,  by  German  mis- 
sionaries, of  Abyssinia  and  the  interior  of  Eastern 
Africa ;  also,  by  English  missionaries,  of  a  part  of 
the  island  of  Madagascar.  The  missionary  explora- 
tion of  a  large  part  of  Southern  Africa  by  Campbell, 
Moffatt,  Livingstone,  and  others,  furnish  chapters 
of  surpassing  interest  in  the  history  of  missions. 
Of  the  Western  coast  of  Africa  there  has  been  a 
missionary  survey  along  at  least  two  thousand  miles, 
and  also  for  a  considerable  distance  up  the  river 
Niger.  But  in  Africa  there  is  yet  much  unknown 
land. 

The  whole  great  country  occupied  by  the  two  hun- 
dred millions  of  India,  is  now  sufficiently  known  for 
missionary  purposes.  So  are  Assam,  Burmah,  and 
Siam.  And  a  process  of  missionary  exploration  is 
now  advancing  somewhat  rapidly  in  China,  with  its 
four  hundred  and  fourteen  millions  of  inhabitants, 
and  its  thirteen  hundred  thousand  square  miles. 
Some  parts  of  the  Indian  Archipelago  are  not  well 
known  in  a  missionary  point  of  view;  neither  is 
Corea,  nor  Japan,  nor  Chinese  Tartary,  nor  Cen- 


202  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

tral  Asia.  But  the  Isles  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  are 
known  to  a  very  great  extent,  and  so  are  the  Indian 
tribes  of  our  Westeril  wilderness. 

Indeed  it  may  be  truthfully  said,  that  the  mission- 
ary survey  of  the  world  has  now  been  carried  so  far 
forward,  that  scarcely  anything  more  needs  to  be 
done  in  that  way  at  present.  As  a  preliminary  work 
this  exploration  was  necessary,  and  it  has  been  in 
great  measure  accomplished,  and  by  missionaries 
under  the  supervision  of  missionary  societies ;  and 
it  will  not  need  to  be  repeated. 

In  the  year  1812,  as  is  generally  known,  it  was 
not  possible  for  the  American  Board  to  determine 
upon  a  field  for  a  small  band  of  five  or  six  mission- 
aries, and  those  missionaries  were  actually  sent  to 
India  without  any  very  positive  instructions  as  to 
where  they  should  labor.  And  for  many  years  after 
this,  as  I  can  testify,  the  needful  information  as  re- 
gards the  heathen  world  at  large,  was  gained  with 
considerable  difficulty.  But  now,  we  should  scarcely 
be  at  a  loss  in  designating  hundreds  of  missionaries, 
and  in  giving  them  specific  instructions. 

2.  It  will  be  natural  for  us  to  consider  the  progress 
which  has  been  made  in  the  missionary  occupation 
of  the  unevangelized  world.  Regarding  the  small- 
ness  of  the  invading  force,  the  number  of  important 
centres  occupied  is  truly  marvelous.  The  single 
point  we  have  now  in  view  is,  the  occupancy  of  cen- 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS.  203 

tral  aud  influential  posts.  We  commence  in  the 
countries  of  the  Mediterranean. 

The  English  Church  Missionary  Society  was  the 
first  to  move  towards  this  part  of  the  world,  which 
it  did- in  1815 ;  sending  Mr.  Jowett,  an  enlightened 
scholar,  whose  published  "  Researches,"  as  I  thank- 
fully remember,  were  a  valuable  guide  and  incentive 
forty  years  ago.  He  was  followed  by  Mr.  Lowndes, 
of  the  London  Missionary  Society.  In  1819,  Messrs. 
Fisk  and  Parsons,  of  the  American  Board,  went 
forth  to  occupy  Jerusalem,  then  believed  to  be  an 
important  centre  in  that  part  of  Western  Asia. 
Beirut,  the  capital  of  Syria,  was  next  occupied,  by 
Messrs.  Goodell  and  Bird.  This  was  in  1823 ;  and 
it  was  the  beginning  of  that  great  movement  of 
our  American  churches,  which  has  since  extended 
through  Turkey,  and  into  Persia;  and  gained  a 
footing  in  most  of  the  more  important  influential 
posts  among  the  races  speaking  the  Arabic,  Turk- 
ish, Syriac,  Armenian,  and  Bulgarian  languages. 
The  churches  have  taken  possession,  moreover,  of 
what  may  be  regarded  as  the  religious  centres  of  the 
Greek,  Armenian,  Bulgarian,  and  Syriac  churches ; 
and  there  are  but  few  places  in  Western  Asia,  north 
of  Arabia,  not  now  occupied  by  foreign  missionaries, 
which  we  should  desire  to  see  occupied  for  any  length 
of  time  by  others  than  native  laborers. 

Passing  over  the  countries  of  Central  Asia,  all  yet 
destitute  of  evangelical  missionaries,  we  step  from 


204  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

among  the  bigoted  Moslems  of  Afghanistan  into 
British  India;  and  there,  in  the  northwest  corner 
of  India,  we  find  missionaries.  From  thence,  down 
througli  the  hundred  and  twenty  millions  in  the 
great  valley  of  the  Ganges  to  Calcutta,  we  find  a 
large  number  of  the  more  important  posts  in  posses- 
sion of  different  missionary  societies ;  though  as  yet, 
for  the  most  part,  with  an  altogether  inadequate 
missionary  force.  The  valley  of  the  Indus  is  also 
beginning  to  be  occupied  by  missionary  stations ; 
and  so  is  Rajpootana. 

From  Calcutta  towards  the  southwest,  and  from 
Surat  and  Bombay  towards  the  east  and  southeast, 
and  over  the  great  populous  peninsula  of  India,  mis- 
sionaries are  found  at  very  many  of  the  more  in- 
fluential centres  ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  Ceylon.  A 
late  number  of  the  "  Friend  of  India,"  published  in 
Calcutta,  affirms,  that  thirty  societies  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, the  United  States,  and  Germany  are  at  work  in 
India,  with  five  hundred  and  forty  white  and  two 
hundred  and  twenty  native  clergy,  and  eighteen 
hundred  native  catechists  ;  working  in  four  hundred 
central  stations,  with  two  thousand  three  hundred 
branches  ;  and  that  they  have  eighty  thousand  boys 
and  thirty  thousand  girls  in  their  schools.  The  an- 
nual cost  is  reckoned  at  ^300,000,  or  f  1,500,000 ;  of 
which  1250,000  are  given  by  people  in  India  who 
are  conversant  with  the  facts ;  and  $100,000  by  the 
native  converts  themselves. 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSWNS.  206 

India  is  of  great  extent,  and  travelling  has  here- 
tofore been  exceedingly  laborious  and  expensive.  It 
has  been  hard  to  see  in  what  manner  missions  could 
permeate  the  country.  It  is  therefore  important  to 
mention,  that  durable  railways  are  now  considerably 
advanced  through  its  whole  extent,  under  the  patron- 
age of  government,  which  guarantees  an  income  of 
at  least  five  percent,  to  the  several  English  com- 
panies building  the  roads. 

The  railway  system  embraces  an  extent  of  about 
five  thousand  miles,  and  the  larger  part  of  it  has 
been  completed.  What  is  called  the  "East  India 
Railway,"  running  up  the  valley  of  the  Ganges,  con- 
nects Calcutta  with  Delhi,  a  distance  of  a  thousand 
miles.  The  "  Great  India  Peninsular  Railway " 
connects  with  the  one  in  the  Ganges  valley,  at  Alla- 
habad, about  five  hundred  miles  above  Calcutta, 
crosses  the  Deccan  plateau,  and  descends  thence  to 
the  Concan  and  Bombay,  and  from  Bombay  it  pro- 
ceeds to  Madras ;  the  whole  length  of  the  line  being 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty-six  miles.  The  ascent  of 
the  Ghauts  on  this  line  from  Bombay  to  Madras, 
was  a  work  requiring  upwards  of  seven  years,  during 
which  as  many  as  forty  thousand  laborers  were  occa- 
sionally employed  upon  it  at  one  time.  "  Beginning 
its  ascent  along  a  spur  thrown  out  from  the  main 
range,  this  incline  continues  its  upward  winding 
way  through  long  tunnels  piercing  the  hardest  basalt, 
across  viaducts  spanning  ravines  of  great  width  and 


206  'FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

depth,  often  aloug  what  is  simply  a  large  notch  cut 
in  the  face  of  a  precipice."  ^  The  "  Madras  Rail- 
way "  crosses  from  Madras  to  a  port  on  the  Malahar 
coast,  eight  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles.  The 
"  Bombay,  Baroda,  and  Central  India  Railway  "  goes 
uorthward  from  Bombay  into  the  fertile  province  of 
Guzerat,  three  hundred  and  twelve  miles ;  and  may 
yet  be  extended  through  Rajpootana  to  Delhi.  The 
"  Punjaub  Railway "  extends  from  Delhi  through 
Lahore,  the  capital  of  the  Punjaub,  and  thence  west- 
ward to  Mooltan ;  from  whence  there  will  be  a  con- 
nection by  steamers,  and  by  the  "  Scinde  Railway," 
with  Kurrachee,  a  seaport  near  the  mouth  of  that 
river.  The  extent  of  the  "  Punjaub  Railway  "  is  five 
hundred  and  sixty-six  miles,  and  of  the  "  Scinde  Rail- 
way "  one  hundred  and  nine  miles.  From  Calcutta, 
the  "  Eastern  Bengal  Railway  "  runs  northeasterly 
one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  miles,  and  may  yet  be 
extended  to  the  borders  of  China ;  and  the  "•  South- 
eastern Railway"  twenty-nine  miles,  to  a  point  on 
the  neighboring  coast.  The  ''  Southern  India  Rail- 
way," one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  miles,  connects 
Madras  with  Negapatam,  a  seaport  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  continent ;  and  will  probably  be  extended 
through  the  Madura  and  Tinnevelly  provinces  to 
Travancore. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  1868,  nearly  four  thousand 
miles  on  these  railways  were  open  to  travel  and  traffic, 

1  North  British  Review,  1868,  p.  177. 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS.  207 

aud  an  additional  thousand  miles  were  under  con- 
struction. Bombay  is  therefore  to  become  "  the 
sea-gate,  through  which  the  postal  communications 
of  Europe  and  India  are  henceforth  to  flow." 

The  estimated  cost  of  these  five  thousand  miles  of 
railway  is  four  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars. 
And,  under  the  orderings  of  Divine  Providence,  the 
whole  is  built  as  really  for  the  church,  as  for  the 
world,  and  wholly  at  the  expense  of  the  latter.  These 
railways  are  not  less  important  in  a  missionary  point 
of  view,  than  they  are  in  their  relation  to  the  social, 
civil,  political,  and  commercial  interests  of  India. 
The  saving  to  the  church,  in  its  work  of  converting 
India,  will  be  immense  in  travel,  labor,  time,  ex- 
posure, health,  life,  and  expenditure.  Bombay,  and 
not  Calcutta  nor  Madras,  must  henceforward  be  the 
great  landing  place  and  point  of  departure  for  mis- 
sionaries to  India.  And  how  easy,  how  compar- 
atively inexpensive  and  safe  will  be  access  to  every 
part  of  the  country.  In  how  short  a  time  will  the 
lines  radiating  from  that  great  commercial  en- 
trepot transport  the  missionary  to  the  valleys  of  the 
Ganges  and  the  Indus,  to  the  northern  provinces,  and 
far  down  into  the  Peninsula. 

The  more  influential  posts  in  Bur m ah,  Assam,  and 
Siam  eastward  of  India,  are  occupied  by  mission- 
aries. There  are  also  missionary  stations  on  the 
great  island  of  Borneo,  and  on  the  Molluccas  and 
Celebes.      In  the    maritime    provinces    of   China, 


208  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

nearly  every  important  port  has  missionaries ;  and 
there  are  missionaries  some  hundreds  of  miles  up 
the  Yangtszkiang,  the  great  river  of  China,  others 
half-way  from  the  sea  to  the  capital,  others  in 
Pekin,  and  there  is  a  missionary  post  beyond  the 
famous  Chinese  wall.  Japan  has  also  been  entered  by 
Protestant  missionary  societies,  and  so  are  different 
portions  of  Papal  Europe,  and  of  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese America. 

In  the  Pacific  Ocean,  a  large  portion  of  the  more 
important  groups  of  islands  are  occupied,  and  so  ex- 
tensively that  the  chances  of  shipwreck  among  sav- 
age pagans  have  been  greatly  reduced  —  as  I  presume 
the  rates  of  insurance  would  show. 

Nearly  the  whole  of  Southern  Africa  has,  for  many 
years,  been  under  religious  culture  by  missionaries. 
So  is  a  small  portion  of  the  eastern  coast,  and  a  part 
of  Madagascar.  So  is  the  coast  of  Western  Africa 
from  the  equator  a  long  distance  westward,  and 
there  are  missionaries  on  the  Niger,  and  also  in 
Egypt. 

This  will  suffice  for  an  illustration  of  the  extent,  to 
which  the  more  important  regions  of  the  unevangel- 
ized  world  have  been  occupied. 

3.  There  has  been  great  progress  in  reducing  the 
cost  of  missionary  occupation.  For  this  we  are 
largely  indebted  to  the  business  enterprise  of  men  of 
the  world,  as  seen  in  steamships,  railways,  and  other 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS.  209 

signs  of  progress  in  civilization  too  numerous  to 
specify ;  all  of  which  are  doubtless  providentially  in- 
tended to  facilitate  the  church  in  its  great  work  of 
evangelizing  the  world  of  mankind.  These  are 
economies  on  a  grand  scale.  But  what  I  have  now 
specially  in  view,  are  economies  in  the  working  of 
the  missions  themselves.  This  I  can  best  illustrate 
from  the  experience  of  the  institution  with  which  I 
have  been  intimately  connected.  The  number  of  sta- 
tions and  out-stations  connected  with  the  American 
Board  has  increased,  since  the  year  1852,  from  one 
hundred  and  forty-nine  to  five  hundred  and  eighty- 
six  ;  and  its  laborers,  foreign  and  native,  from  six 
hundred  and  twenty  to  twelve  hundred  and  sixty- 
four  ;  and  its  churches,  from  ninety-four  to  two  hun- 
dred and  five.  Yet  the  expenditure  rose  only  from 
$310,000  to  $442,000,  which,  considering  the  com- 
parative value  of  gold  at  the  two  periods,  was  really 
almost  no  increase  at  all.  The  number  of  foreign 
laborers  decreased  somewhat  in  this  time,  but  the 
increase  of  native  laborers  was  more  than  threefold  ; 
and  thus  it  was  that  the  number  of  occupied  posts 
could  be  nearly  quadrupled,  as  they  were,  with  very 
little  actual  increase  of  expenditure.  Native  laborers 
cost  far  less  than  foreign  laborers.  Then  there  was, 
as  already  described,  an  increase  in  spiritual  agencies, 
which  are  less  expensive  than  secular  agencies.  The 
native  churches,  moreover,  were  more  than  doubled  ; 
and  sixty-two  of  these  churches  received  native  pas- 

14 


210  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

tors  for  the  first  time,  with  the  understanding  that 
they  would  support  them  wholly,  or  in  part.  It  is 
important  to  add,  that  in  associated,  self-governing 
missions  there  is  necessarily  a  growth  of  experience, 
and  of  superintending  and  executive  power,  and  new 
discoveries  of  the  relations  and  capabilities  of  the 
missionary  enterprise,  and  new  arrangements  and 
combinations  for  increasing  the  economy  and  effi- 
cacy of  its  spiritual  agencies. 

This  progress  of  economy  in  the  working  of  mis- 
sions might  be  illustrated  at  great  length,  but  I  con- 
tent myself  with  instancing  the  saving  in  houses 
for  public  worship.  Each  of  the  churches  of  course 
needs  one  such  house.  It  is  the  misfortune  of  some 
of  the  older  missions  of  which  I  am  now  speaking, 
that  their  first  houses  for  worship  were  not  erected 
for  Christian  congregations,  —  for  such  congrega- 
tions were  then  scarcely  existing, — but  for  large 
gatherings  of  heathen  children  in  schools,  taught  by 
heathen  masters.  Those  schools  no  longer  exist ; 
but  the  church  buildings  erected  for  them  do,  and 
each  of  these,  built  after  our  Western  models,  cost  so 
much  that,  being  naturally  looked  upon  by  the 
natives  as  proper  models  for  houses  of  worship,  they 
necessarily  stand  somewhat  in  the  way  of  the  native 
Christians  themselves  erecting  appropriate  houses 
in  their  several  villages.  The  India  missions,  in 
1854-55,  decided,  in  view  of  their  own  experience, 
that  the  style  of  houses  for  worship  ought  to  have  a 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS.  211 

general  correspondence  with  the  dwellings  of  the 
people.  In  the  same  year  the  missions  in  Western 
Asia  resolved  that,  extraordinary  cases  excepted,  the 
houses  for  public  worship  should  be  cheap  and  plain, 
and  should  be  built  only  when  there  were  congrega- 
tions to  render  them  necessary ;  and  this  for  the 
reason,  that  such  houses  should  correspond  to  the 
size  of  the  congregations,  and  should  be  built,  in 
good  part,  by  the  people  themselves.^ 

The  past  fifty  years  have  been  especially  the  time 
for  gaining  experience ;  and  the  experience,  though 
sometimes  it  has  been  expensive,  we  have  for  all 
future  time. 

4.  In  nothing  have  the  Protestant  churches  been 
so  agreed  in  the  working  of  missions  among  the 
heathen,  as  in  the  duty  of  giving  them  the  Bible. 
This  surely  is  obedience  to  Christ's  command,  and  I 
am  to  state  briefly  what  has  been  done  in  this  de- 
partment. 

Often  one  of  the  first  things  missionaries  had  to 
do  among  a  savage  people  was  to  catch  the  fleeting 
sounds  in  their  utterances,  and  express  them  in  a 
written  form.  There  being  thousands  of  these  in 
every  language  not  easily  distinguishable,  we  may 
imagine  the  labor  and  patience  that  were  required. 
The  missionaries  of  the  American  Board  have,  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent,  reduced  twenty  languages  to 

1  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Board,  for  1865,  pp.  23,  25. 


212  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

writing,  all  of  them,  except  the  Modern  Syriac,  bar- 
barous languages.  I  have  not  the  means  of  deter- 
mining how  many  rude  languages,  on  the  whole, 
have  been  subjected  to  this  process.  But  we  know, 
that,  within  the  last  half  century,  the  entire  Bible 
has  been  translated  into  thirty-nine  languages,  out- 
side of  Christendom,  embracing  nearly  all  the  more 
important  languages  ;  the  New  Testament  into  thir- 
ty-five others ;  and  portions  of  Scripture  into  forty- 
eight  others  —  making  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  languages  in  the  great  field  of  Christian  mis- 
sions, that  have  been  enriched  and  ennobled  within 
fifty  years  past,  by  having  at  least  portions  of  God's 
Word  transfused  into  them.  And  it  is  a  wonderful 
fact,  that  by  far  the  largest  part  of  the  necessary 
work  of  translating  the  Scriptures  has  been  already 
accomplished. 

Scarcely  less  than  a  hundred  million  copies  of  the 
Scriptures  have  been  issued,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
since  the  formation  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  in  1804 ;  and  not  less  than  ten  millions  of 
these  have  gone  into  nations  beyond  the  bounds  of 
Christendom.  And  we  are  impressed  with  the  com- 
parative magnitude  of  this  branch  of  the  enterprise, 
when  we  reflect  that  these  ten  millions  of  Bibles  are 
more  than  double  the  number  of  copies  believed  to 
have  existed  within  the  bounds  of  Christendom, 
during  the  three  centuries  and  a  half  from  the 
printing  of  the  first  Bible,  in  1460,  down  to  the  era 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS.  213 

of  Bible  societies,  and  a  far  greater  number  of 
copies  than  were  in  the  hands  of  mankind  through 
^11  the  ages  of  the  world,  from  Moses  to  the  Refor- 
mation. What  an  advance  is  this  in  obedience  to 
Christ's  most  beneficent  command  ! 

The  number  of  other  books,  and  of  tracts,  that 
have  been  printed  in  the  languages  of  the  unevan- 
gelized  nations,  in  this  era  of  modern  missions,  it  is 
impossible  to  estimate  with  certainty.  I  know  that 
the  American  Board  has  published  them  in  forty-two 
languages,  and  to  the  extent  of  more  than  a  thou- 
sand millions  of  pages  ;  and  that  the  American  Bap- 
tist Missionary  Union  has  published  in  thirty-three 
languages,  and  to  the  extent  of  more  than  two  hun- 
dred millions  of  pages.  These  two  American  socie- 
ties alone  have  published  in  not  less  than  sixty-eight 
different  languages  of  the  unevangelized  world;  and 
the  number  of  titles  to  their  works,  and  of  course 
the  number  of  separate  works,  does  not  fall  far  short 
of  three  thousand.  The  amount  of  printing  by  the 
General  Assembly's  Board,  I  cannot  state  with  cer- 
tainty, but  it  is  believed  not  to  fall  short  of  three 
hundred  and  sixty  millions  of  pages.  Though  other 
societies  may  not  have  operated  through  the  press 
to  the  same  extent,  we  yet  see  how  immense,  on  the 
whole,  must  have  been  the  product  of  the  missionary 
press,  and  the  addition  to  the  means  of  knowledge, 
and  especially  of  religious  knowledge,  in  the  heathen 
world. 


214  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

5.  There  has  been  an  encouraging  progress  in  the 
contributions  for  the  support  of  foreign  missions. 
The  American  Board  began  with  one  thousand  dollars 
in  its  first  year,  and  has  since  received  more  than 
half  a  million  in  one  year  ;  and  the  sum  total  of  its 
receipts  is  about  twelve  millions  of  dollars.  The 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Missions  has  a  sum  total  of 
four  millions  five  hundred  thousand  dollars ;  and  the 
American  Baptist  Union  of  more  than  four  millions. 
These  are  given  merely  as  illustrations.  There  has 
been  a  corresponding  growth  in  the  receipts  of  the 
great  missionary  societies  generally,  both  in  this 
country,  and  in  Great  Britain.  The  combined  re- 
ceipts of  twenty-four  British  foreign  missionary 
societies  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel  among 
the  heathen  and  the  Jews,  in  the  year  1867,  ex- 
ceeded two  millions  of  dollars.  That  of  twelve  Ameri- 
can missionary  societies,  for  the  same  object,  in  the 
year  1868,  exceeded  one  million  five  hundred  thou- 
sand. 

It  is  a  remarkable  and  very  encouraging  feature 
in  the  financial  history  of  the  larger  missionary  so- 
cieties, that  dividing  their  existence  into  periods  of 
a  few  years  each,  there  has  generally  been  an  increase 
of  receipts  in  each  of  these  periods.  The  law  is 
one  of  growth  and  progress ;  and  the  continuance  of 
this  progress  seems  more  probable  now  than  ever. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  that  what  I  am  now 
seeking  to  develop,  is  not  the  success  of  missions  in 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS,  215 

the  way  of  converting  the  heathen.  It  is  rather  the 
great  preparation  for  success.  It  is  the  progress  in 
learning  the  precise  nature  of  our  work ;  in  securing 
influential  positions  in  the  un evangelized  world;  in 
improving  our  methods  of  employing  native  forces ; 
and  in  substituting  the  more  potential  spiritual 
agencies  for  such  as  are  less  potential. 

We  should  reflect  on  the  shortness  of  the  time 
since  the  oldest  of  the  foreign  missions  began  to 
operate.  I  myself  well  remember  when  there  was 
no  missionary  in  Turkey ;  when  missionaries  were 
debarred  from  the  greater  part  of  India ;  when  none 
were  in  Burmah,  none  in  China,  none  in  the  Indian 
Archipelago;  when  there  were  none  in  Africa,  ex- 
cepting Sierra  Leone,  and  the  southern  extremity  of 
the  continent;  and  none  in  the  great  island-world 
of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  except  some  small  groups  in 
the  south. 

But  how  is  it  now?  The  number  of  ordained 
missionaries  in  the  field  falls  but  little  short  of  two 
thousand.  There  are  nearly  a  thousand  missionary 
stations,  occupied  by  missionaries ;  and  nearly  three 
thousand  out-stations,  occupied  by  a  native  ministry 
of  some  sort.  The  native  helpers  in  the  missions,  of 
all  kinds,  cannot  be  less  than  five  thousand ;  and 
perhaps  half  of  these  are  preachers  of  the  gospel, 
and  more  than  three  hundred  are  pastors  of  native 
churches. 

Thus  much  as  to  the  missionary  force  already  in  the 


216  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

field.  Of  converts,  churches,  and  nominal  Christians 
I  shall  speak  hereafter. 

It  is  proper  that  we  should  take  some  notice  of 
those  portions  of  the  unevangelized  world,  which 
have  not  yet  been  reached  by  Christian  missions. 

In  respect  to  Africa,  my  thoughts  go  back  to  the 
evening  of  September  22,  1833,  and  to  the  first 
Presbyterian  church  in  Philadelphia,  where  was  then 
assembled  one  of  the  finest  audiences  I  ever  beheld. 
Then  and  there  the  two  first  missionaries  of  the 
American  Board  to  Africa  received  their  instructions 
as  missionaries  to  the  Western  coast ;  and  I  never 
performed  that  service  with  a  feeling  so  nearly  ap- 
proaching to  enthusiasm.  To  my  then  unchastened 
imagination,  it  seemed  easy  to  cross  the  Kong 
Mountains,  and  to  ascend  the  Niger  and  Tshadda 
to  the  supposed  pastoral  highlands  of  the  interior ; 
and  there,  meeting  the  missionary  forces  from  the 
East  and  Southeast,  to  unite  with  them  in  lofty 
praise  over  Africa's  redemption.  The  remarkable 
mission  of  Mr.  Johnson  at  Sierra  Leone,  already 
described,  was  prior  to  that  time,  and  fresh  in  my 
memory,  and  so  was  that  of  Dr.  Vanderkemp  and 
others  among  the  Hottentots  of  South  Africa.  But 
it  seems  not  to  be  the  divine  purpose  that  Equatorial 
Africa  shall  be  evangelized  by  the  white  man,  or 
that  it  should  be  effected  by  any  means  until  slavery 
had  been  abolished  in  Protestant  Christendom.  It 
was  reserved,  as  I  now  love  to  believe,  for  the  de- 


DIFFUSION  OF  MISSIONS.  217 

sceudants  of  Africans  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  lands 
of  their  forefathers.  And  we  may  expect  them  to  be 
forward  so  to  do,  when  once  their  own  Christian  priv- 
ileges have  become  assured.  No  white  man  should 
join  their  missions ;  and  men  from  their  own  race 
will  in  due  time  be  their  agents  for  raising  funds 
from  among  themselves,  and  perhaps,  too,  their 
secretaries  for  correspondence  with  the  African  mis- 
sions. 

The  Mohammedans  number  one  hundred  and  forty 
millions,  and,  as  a  race,  have  heretofore  not  been 
accessible  to  the  gospel.  The  abolition  of  the  death- 
penalty  for  renouncing  Mohammedanism  by  the 
Sultan  in  the  year  1843,  is  probably  without  effect  in 
provinces  remote  from  Constantinople.  But  the 
progress  of  Christian  empire,  whether  Russia,  France, 
or  England  be  the  triumphing  power,  will  go  far  to 
abolish  this  fundamental  law  of  Moslemism.  And 
experience  encourages  the  hope,  that  where  this  is 
done,  large  numbers  of  Moslems,  —  descendants,  it 
may  be,  of  ancient  Christians,  —  will  embrace  the 
gospel.  At  present  there  is  no  distinct  call  to  plant 
missions  among  the  Moslems  of  Northern  Africa,  or 
Central  Asia. 

Of  Thibet  we  know  almost  nothing,  and  therefore 
I  may  not  speak  of  it. 

The  Roman  Catholic  world  is  shut  against  us,  so  far 
as  the  Romish  priesthood  have  the  power  of  so  doing. 
Such   power  they  had,   until  within  a  single  year, 


218  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

in  Spain  and  Austria;  and  now  have  in  Portugal, 
and  several  of  the  smaller  Roman  Catholic  States  of 
Europe.  They  wield  it  more  or  less  in  most  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  American  States.  In  France  they 
are  yet  ahle  greatly  to  embarrass  the  Protestant  press 
and  ministry.  In  Italy,  and  even  in  Spain,  their 
power  seems  to  be  considerably  broken. 

I  come  to  this  general  conclusion.  That  the  Evan- 
gelical Church  is  now  fast  occupying  the  central  and 
influential  points  in  all  countries  that  are  really  open 
to  the  heralds  of  the  cross.  Not  thoroughly  and 
effectually,  but  in  part,  and  with  the  intent  and  ex- 
pectation of  enlargement,  until  the  end  is  accom- 
plished, and  these  countries  become  the  Lord's. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

SUCCESS   OF  MISSIONS. 

The  Missions  yet  in  the  Infancy  of  their  Experience.  —  Success  among 
the  North  American  Indians  ;  in  the  Isles  of  the  Pacific ;  in  China ; 
among  the  Karens  of  Burmah ;  in  India ;  in  Madagascar ;  in  Africa ; 
in  Western  Asia. — Extent  of  the  Invasion.  —  Strength  of  the 
Invading  Army.  —  Summary.  —  The  Hope  of  the  Church. 

I  COME  to  a  most  interesting  portion  of  my  great 
theme,  namely,  the  fulfillment  of  Christ's  promise  to 
be  with  his  missionary  servants.  The  fulfillment  has 
been  commensurate  with  the  obedience. 

In  illustrating  the  success  granted  by  the  Head  of 
the  Church  to  modern  missions,  I  adduce,  as  hereto- 
fore, the  more  striking  proofs,  and  these  will  gener- 
ally be  found  in  the  older  missions.  Many  of  the 
more  important  missions  are  of  recent  date;  as,, for 
instance,  the  missions  in  Northern  China  and  Japan, 
several  in  Northern  India,  and  several  in  Northern 
and  Western  Polynesia.  It  is  also  to  be  remembered, 
how  few  are  the  years  since  the  discovery  was  made 
of  the  vital  importance  of  native  pastors  to  the 
development  of  self-reliant,  enterprising  native 
churches.     I  begin  with  the  nearest  field. 

1.  Missions  have  been  crowned  with  success,  all 


220  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

things  considered,  among  our  North  American  In- 
dians. This  is  contrary,  I  believe,  to  the  general 
opinion.  The  missions  to  the  Cherokee  and  Choc- 
taw Indians,  tribes  numbering  together  about  forty 
thousand  souls,  were  begun  in  the  years  1816  and 
1818.  In  1860,  these  Indians  were  pronounced  a 
Christian  people.  They  were  then  as  accessible  to 
Christian  preachers,  and  listened  to  them  with  as 
much  deference,  to  say  the  least,  as  their  white 
neighbors  in  the  adjoining  States.  The  professors 
of  the  Christian  religion  among  them  were  in  as 
large  a  proportion,  as  in  any  part  of  our  country, 
and  Christianity  was  their  only  religion.  They  rec- 
ognized the  Sabbath  as  a  divine  institution,  and 
transacted  no  public  business  on  that  day.  Among 
the  Cherokees,  the  Bible  was  required  by  law  to  be 
read  in  the  schools,  and  no  person  denying  the  being 
of  God,  or  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments, could  hold  a  civil  office.  In  addition  to  six- 
teen white  preachers  of  different  denominations, 
the  Cherokees  had  more  than  forty  licensed  native 
preachers.^ 

Surrounded  by  slaveholders,  and  being  such  to 
some  extent  themselves,  those  Indians  suffered  much 
in  their  religious  condition  during  the  late  war. 
Nevertheless,  they  are  a  monument  and  proof  of  what 
might  have  been  accomplished  among  the  Indians 
of  North  America,  through  the  grace  of  God,  but 

1  See  Report  of  American  Board  for  1860,  p.  137. 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  221 

for  the  pernicious  influences  of  white  neighbors  and 
traders. 

A  more  remarkable  triumph  of  the  gospel  was 
among  the  Dakota  Indians  in  Minnesota,  within  the 
past  six  or  seven  years.  There  had  been  missionary 
labors  among  them  before,  but  without  much  appar- 
ent success.  In  1862,  the  pagan  Dakotas  resolved 
upon  exterminating,  in  true  Indian  style,  the  whites 
who  had  encroached  on  their  hunting-grounds,  and 
they  actually  commenced  a  general  massacre.  The 
missionaries  and  their  families  escaped  only  by  a 
painful  flight,  in  which  they  were  aided  by  Christian 
Indians.  It  was  a  renewal  of  the  old  King  Philip 
war,  and  the  exasperated  whites,  as  aforetime,  after 
the  Indians  had  been  subdued,  made  little  distinc- 
tion between  the  innocent  and  guilty.  Two  thou- 
sand Dakotas  were  held  in  military  custody,  of  whom 
more  than  three  hundred  were  sentenced  to  death  by 
a  military  commission,  though  less  than  forty  were 
executed,  in  consequence  of  an  appeal  to  President 
Lincoln. 

The  missionaries  were  allowed  free  access  to  the 
Indians  under  this  military  restraint,  and  then  com- 
menced their  harvest.  Within  three  years,  more 
than  five  hundred  Dakotas  were  admitted  to  the 
church  on  giving  credible  evidence  of  piety.  Two 
thirds  of  these  soon  learned  to  read  and  write  their 
own  language,  and  several  were  licensed  as  preach- 
ers of  the  gospel. 


222  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

Just  think  of  a  scene  like  the  following",  which 
occurred  during  the  first  of  those  three  years.  It  is 
in  a  company  of  some  hundreds  of  Dakotas,  just 
emharked  on  the  Mississippi  Kiver  for  a  residence 
—  to  them  a  banishment  —  far  up  the  Missouri 
River.  The  missionary  who  accompanied  them, 
writes  thus :  — 

"  As  darkness  shut  in  the  skies,  the  Indians  looked 
out  upon  their  native  hills,  as  they  said,  for  the  last 
time.  We  were  hardly  under  way,  however,  when 
from  all  the  different  parts  of  the  boat  where  the 
Indians  were  collected,  we  heard  hymns  of  praise 
ascending  to  Jehovah ;  not  loud,  but  soft  and 
.sweet,  like  the  gentle  murmuring  of  waters.  Then 
one  of  them  led  in  prayer,  after  which  another  hymn 
was  sung,  and  so  they  continued  till  all  were  com- 
posed, and,  drawing  their  blankets  over  them,  each 
fell  asleep.  The  next  morning,  before  sunrise,  they 
were  again  at  their  devotions.  So  they  continued, 
evening  and  morning;  and  these  services  were  com- 
menced without  any  suggestion  from  us." 

Think,  too,  of  another  scene,  near  the  centre  of 
Minnesota,  on  the  brow  of  what  is  called  the 
"  Mountain  of  the  Prairie,"  looking  out  upon  a  wide 
and  beautiful  prospect.  Here  the  missionary  writes 
in  October,  1867:  — 

"  Our  first  public  meeting  was  on  Friday,  a  little 
before  sunset,  when  we  preached  to  nearly  one  hun- 
dred persons,  seated  on  the  grass  in  the  open  air. 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  223 

most  of  whom  had  come  that  day  from  five  to  ten 
miles.  Not  half  a  dozen  were  within  three  miles  in 
the  morning,  and  the  nearest  house  was  more  than 
fifteen  miles  awa3^  Most  of  the  day  we  were  occu- 
pied in  examining"  candidates  for  church  fellowship. 
In  the  afternoon  we  found  our  audience  considerably 
increased  by  such  as  had  come  in  during  the  day, 
notwithstanding  the  unpleasant  weather.  Two 
women  had  walked  more  than  twenty  miles,  and, 
lest  they  might  be  late,  came  most  of  the  lonesome 
road  in  the  chilly  air  of  the  night.  One  of  these, 
more  than  fifty  years  old,  came  to  Mr.  Riggs,  and 
handed  him  five  dollars,  which  she  and  her  daughter 
gave  for  the  support  of  the  gospel  among  their 
people. 

"  Most  of  the  Lord's  day  was  spent  in  public  re- 
ligious exercises.  I  can  find  no  words  to  express  my 
feelings  of  joy  and  wonder,  as  on  that  day  I  contem- 
plated God's  mighty  doings  among  these  Dakotas. 
They  were  more  than  sufficient  to  compensate  for  a 
weary  journey  of  several  hundred  miles  over  the 
trackless  prairie.  When  the  candidates  for  baptism 
were  called  for,  more  than  fifty  presented  them- 
selves, including  parents  and  children,  of  whom 
twenty  were  about  to  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
for  the  first  time."  ^ 

In  the  year  1852,  ten  American  missionary  socie- 
ties had  missions   among  the   Indian   tribes;  with 

Missionary  Herald,  1863,  p.  205  ;  1867,  p.  387. 


224  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

ninety-four  ordained  mi&'sionaries,  thirty-eight  na- 
tive preachers  (of  whom  I  think  few  had  received 
ordination),  nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  sixty- 
four  church-members,  nine  hundred  and  thirty-six 
in  hoarding-schools,  and  about  fifteen  hundred  in 
day-schools.  The  decline  in  these  missions,  since 
that  time,  is  attributable  mainly  to  national  causes, 
into  which  it  is  not  needful  that  I  now  enter. 

2.  My  next  illustration  is  from  the  Islands  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  These  islands  have  awakened  an  ex- 
traordinary interest  during  the  past  half  century.  I 
have  the  titles  of  more  than  sixty  volumes  concern- 
ing them,  in  the  English  language,  which  are  chiefly 
occupied  with  the  Christian  missions;  not  to  speak 
of  the  contents  of  missionary  periodicals,  reports, 
and  pamphlets,  which,  if  printed  in  volumes,  would 
largely  increase  the  number.  I  can  only  glance  at 
this  great  field;  but  even  a  glance  will  reveal  to 
us  missionary  triumphs,  exceeded  by  nothing  since 
the  apostolic  age. 

The  Sandwich  Islands  come  first  in  the  geographi- 
cal order.  The  system  of  idolatry  there,  such  as  it 
was,  had  its  overthrow  before  the  arrival  of  the 
American  mission  in  1820.  This  singular  occurrence 
is  traceable  to  no  Christian  cause.  It  was  a  revolt, 
under  God's  providence,  from  the  oppressive  restric- 
tions of  the  tabu.  Yet  the  timing  of  the  two  events, 
is  what  no  believer  in  the  divine  government  will 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  225 

overlook.  The  missionaries  anticipated  no  such 
thing  when  they  sailed  from  their  native  land ;  nor 
did  the  natives  overthrow  their  bloody  altars  with 
any  expectation  of  the  coming  missionaries.  Nor  is 
it  by  any  means  certain,  that  this  occurrence  materi- 
ally hastened  the  triumphs  of  Christianity.  Seven- 
teen years  after  the  commencement  of  the  mission, 
and  when  the  primary  truths  of  the  gospel  had  been 
generally  diffused,  there  commenced  throughout  the 
Islands,  as  the  evident  result  of  an  outpouring  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  a  wonderful  religious  movement  affect- 
ing the  entire  native  mind  ;  and  more  than  a  fourth 
part  of  the  adult  population  was  then  added  to  the 
church. 

The  generation  in  which  this  remarkable  triumph 
of  grace  occurred,  has  nearly  passed  away.  Yet 
almost  a  third  part  of  the  inhabitants  are,  at  this 
time,  members  of  the  church,  of  whom  more  than 
eight  hundred  were  received  as  communicants  in  the 
year  1868.  There  are  now  thirty  native  churches 
on  those  Islands,  with  native  pastors  supported  by 
themselves ;  which  churches  also  support  thirteen 
native  foreign  missionaries  in  the  Marquesas  Islands 
and  Micronesia.  And  they  contributed  more  than 
129,000  in  gold,  the  past  year,  for  various  Christian 
objects,  including  the  publication  of  nearly  three 
million  pages  of  Christian  literature.  Having  my- 
self traversed  all  the  Sandwich  Islands,  five  years 
ago,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  the  United  States 

15 


226  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

to  be  no  more  entitled,  as  a  whole,  to  the  appellation 
of  Christian,  than  are  those  Islands. 

Let  us  turn  to  islands  in  the  South  Pacific. 
Twenty-three  years  before  the  gospel  was  brought 
to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  a  company  of  English 
missionaries  landed  on  Tahiti,  in  Eastern  Polynesia, 
and  after  laboring  in  great  discouragement  almost  a 
score  of  years,  they  rejoiced  over  their  first  convert. 
Then  began  a  religious  revolution  on  that  island,  the 
evident  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  will  always 
deserve  a  place  in  the  Christian  history.  Island 
after  island,  group  after  group  of  islands,  in  quick 
succession  threw  away  their  idols,  and  embraced  the 
gospel.  In  some  cases,  the  mere  tidings  of  what 
had  occurred  on  Tahiti,  though  carried  only  by  a 
native  convert,  was  enough  to  produce  this  result. 
Indeed,  it  may  almost  be  said,  that  the  chief  instru- 
ments in  this  propagation  of  the  gospel,  were  native 
evangelists.  In  less  than  twenty  years,  Christianity 
had  become  the  only  religion  in  most  of  the  numer- 
ous islands  westward,  through  the  space  of  nearly 
three  thousand  miles.  Never  was  there  seen  an 
overthrow  of  idolatry  more  extensive,  and  more 
rapid  and  complete. 

The  chief  foreign  agency  in  Eastern  and  Central 
Polynesia,  was  that  of  missionaries  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  and  the  reader  will  be  interested 
in  the  following  recent  testimony  given  by  that 
society :  — 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  227 

"  Sixty  years  ago,  there  was  not  a  solitary  native 
Christian  in  Polynesia ;  now,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
find  a  professed  idolater  in  the  islands  of  Eastern  or 
Central  Polynesia,  where  Christian  missionaries  have 
been  established.  The  hideous  rites  of  their  fore- 
fathers have  ceased  to  be  practiced.  Their  heathen 
legends  and  war-songs  are  forgotten.  Their  cruel 
and  desolating  tribal  wars,  which  were  rapidly  de- 
stroying the  population,  appear  to  be  at  an  end. 
They  are  gathered  together  in  peaceful  village  com- 
munities. They  live  under  recognized  codes  of  laws. 
They  are  constructing  roads,  cultivating  their  fertile 
lands,  and  engaging  in  commerce.  On  the  return 
of  the  Sabbath,  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  popu- 
lation attend  the  worship  of  God,  and  in  some  in- 
stances more  than  half  the  adult  population  are 
recognized  members  of  Christian  churches.  They 
educate  their  children,  endeavoring  to  train  them  for 
usefulness  in  after  life.  They  sustain  their  native 
ministers,  and  send  their  noblest  sons  as  missionaries 
to  the  heathen  lands  which  lie  farther  west.  There 
may  not  be  the  culture,  the  wealth,  the  refinement 
of  the  older  lands  of  Christendom.  These  things 
are  the  slow  growth  of  ages.  But  these  lands  must 
no  longer  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  heathendom.  In 
God's  faithfulness  and  mercy,  they  have  been  won 
from  the  domains  of  heathendom,  and  have  been 
added  to  the  domains  of  Christendom."  ^ 

1  Report  of  London  Missionary  Society  for  1866,  p.  7. 


228  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

But  the  most  remarkable  results  are  in  the  Feejee 
Islands,  about  eighty  in  number,  with  a  population 
of  two  hundred  thousand.  Thirty  years  ago  the 
people  were  all  cannibals,  and  delighted  in  their 
horrid  feasts.  If  a  hundred  white  men  had  been 
cast  upon  their  shores  before  the  entrance  of  the 
gospel,  they  would  all  have  been  immediately  killed 
and  eaten.  Seamen  dreaded  them.  An  American 
vessel  from  Vancouver's  Island,  not  long  ago,  was 
wrecked  at  sea.  The  crew  took  to  their  boat,  and 
after  drifting  some  hundreds  of  miles,  struck  at 
length  on  a  coral  reef.  On  reaching  the  shore,  they 
found  themselves  on  one  of  the  Feejee  Islands,  and 
gave  themselves  up  for  lost.  But  one  of  them  pick- 
ing up  a  book  from  the  sand,  exclaimed :  "  Jack,  I 
say,  airs  right ;  here  is  a  Bible !  Thank  God, 
Christianity  is  here,  and  we  shall  be  saved !  "  And 
so  it  proved.  There  is  no  record  of  more  remark- 
able courage,  self-denial,  and  success  in  missions, 
than  that  of  the  English  Wesleyan  missionaries  on 
those  islands.  The  mission  was  commenced  in  the 
year  1835,  and  within  thirty  years  of  its  commence- 
ment, one  hundred  thousand,  or  about  one  half,  of 
the  inhabitants,  were  in  possession  of  the  Scriptures 
in  their  own  language ;  and,  according  to  the  latest 
intelligence,  ninety  thousand  attended  public  wor- 
ship, including  the  Sabbath- school  children ;  and 
there  were  twenty-two  thousand  church-members. 
The  Feejeean  preachers  numbered  six  hundred  and 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  229 

sixty-three.  Forty-five  of  the  native  preachers  had 
received  ordination,  or  were  candidates  for  it ;  while 
the  number  of  teachers  exceeded  one  thousand,  and 
there  were  thirty-six  thousand  in  the  schools.  The 
people,  thus  brought  under  the  power  of  the  gospel, 
have  of  course  ceased  from  their  cannibalism,  and 
polygamy  and  infanticide  are  fast  passing  away.  A 
value  is  set  upon  human  life.  No  more  do  the 
avengers  of  blood  come  as  savage  warriors,  or  as 
stealthy  assassins,  but  make  their  peaceful  appeal  to 
laws,  founded  on  the  Word  of  God.  An  English 
naval  officer,  speaking  lately  of  a  religious  service 
he  attended  on  one  of  these  islands,  says :  "  I  was  very 
much  impressed  by  the  scene  before  me.  Only  fif- 
teen years  before,  every  man  I  saw  was  a  cannibal. 
Close  to  me  sat  the  old  chief,  Bible  in  hand,  and 
spectacles  on  forehead,  who  was,  twenty  years  back, 
one  of  the  most  sanguinary  and  ferocious  of  this  ter- 
rible land ;  and  within  twenty  yards  of  me  was  the 
sight  of  the  fatal  oven,  with  the  tree  still  standing, 
covered  with  the  ndtches  that  marked  each  new 
victim." 

An  affecting  contrast  to  all  this  is  seen  in  islands 
and  districts  which  have  not  yet  been  reached  by 
the  gospel.  There  the  natives  continue  to  devour  one 
another ;  to  bury  their  sick  alive ;  to  strangle  their 
widows,  murder  their  infants,  and  prosecute  their 
treacherous  and  cruel  wars.  The  newspapers  gave 
recently  an  account  of  the  murder  of  a  missionary 


230  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

and  his  assistants,  when  venturing  across  the  largest 
of  the  pagan  islands. 

A  few  years  more,  and  all  this  will  have  passed 
forever  away.  And  we  need  only  to  estimate  with 
some  care  the  causes  now  in  operation  in  that  part 
of  the  world,  in  order  to  be  assured  that  mission- 
aries, native  or  foreign,  will  erelong  be  found  on 
every  island  of  that  great  ocean,  with  the  certainty 
of  reclaiming  the  inhabitants  to  the  worship  of  the 
true  God. 

3.  In  China,  a  world  of  heathenism,  there  has 
been  scarcely  time  yet  for  more  than  the  first  har- 
vest fruits.  It  is  not  forty  years  since  a  missionary 
was  safe  only  within  the  trading  factories  of  Canton  ; 
and  not  even  there,  if  his  profession  were  publicly 
avowed.  But  now,  the  missionary  may  traverse  nearly 
the  whole  of  that  mighty  empire.  Missionaries 
labor  openly  and  freely  at  all  the  chief  marts  of  trade 
along  the  coast,  and  one  of  the  strongest  missions 
is  in  the  great  metropolis.  The  success  we  can  yet 
speak  of  in  that  vast  domain  of  paganism,  is  chiefly 
of  discovery,  of  accessibility,  of  peaceful  occupancy, 
and  of  some  promising  first  fruits. 

4.  Our  progress  westward  brings  us  next  among 
the  Karens  of  Burmah.  I  had  occasion,  in  a  former 
chapter,  to  state  the  remarkable  success  of  a  Karen 
evangelist,  named  Quala ;  who,  in  the  space  of  three 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  231 

years,  was  the  means  of  hopefully  converting  more 
than  two  thousand  of  his  countrymen. 

It  is  forty  years  since  the  mission  was  commenced 
among  the  Karens,  and  the  success  of  that  native 
evangelist  was  five  and  twenty  years  after  that  time. 
Contemporary  with  that  remarkable  man  were  the 
labors  and  successes  of  the  missionary,  Mr.  Vinton. 
After  some  years  successfully  spent  in  Maulmain  and 
the  surrounding  country,  Mr.  Vinton  removed  into 
the  province  of  Rangoon,  where  his  Christian  ardor 
found  ample  scope  in  unoccupied  districts  among  the 
Karens.  This  was  in  1852,  and  in  six  years  he  died. 
In  the  first  of  these  years,  Mr.  Vinton  received  five 
hundred  Karens  into  the  church.  His  labors  were 
apostolical.  The  country  over  which  he  travelled 
was  destitute  of  roads,  and  the  people  were  poor  and 
ignorant.  His  last  tour  was  in  districts  not  before 
traversed,  and  was  the  immediate  cause  of  his  death. 
The  heat  was  fearful.  Several  nights  he  slept  in 
bamboo  jungles,  and  one  day  he  rode  forty  miles  on 
an  elephant  across  burning  rice-fields.  In  these  six 
years,  Mr.  Vinton  planted  forty  churches,  opened 
forty-two  houses  of  worship,  and  thirty-two  school- 
houses,  and  between  eight  and  nine  thousand  Karens 
were  raised  to  the  level  of  Christian  worshippers.  In 
the  rainy  season,  when  he  could  not  travel,  he  em- 
ployed himself  in  bringing  forward  a  native  ministry, 
and  about  one  hundred  native  pastors,  evangelists, 
and  school-teachers  were  thus  trained.^ 

1   Gospd  in  Burrnah. 


232  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

The  mission,  to  which  Mr.  Vinton  belonged,  con- 
tained, in  the  year  1868,  sixty-six  native  ordained 
pastors  and  evangelists,  three  hundred  and  forty- 
six  native  preachers  unordained,  three  hundred  and 
sixty  native  churches,  nineteen  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty-one  church-members,  and  nearly 
sixty  thousand  native  Christians  of  all  ages.^  This 
surely  is  success ;  this  is  the  blessing  of  God.^ 

The  Karens,  the  Santhals,  the  Coles  of  Nagpore, 
the  Mahars  of  Western  India,  the  Shauars  of  South- 
ern India,  the  Hottentots  and  Kaffirs  of  Africa,  the 
islanders  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  the  American 
Indians,  are  nearly  all  in  the  same  stratum  of  society ; 
and  their  low  social  position  makes  a  change  of  re- 
ligion comparatively  easy.  To  the  poor,  the  gospel 
comes  with  its  most  alluring  power ;  and,  in  the  early 
stages  of  the  missionary  enterprise,  it  was  necessary, 
owing  to  the  weakness  of  faith  in  the  churches  of 
England  and  America,  to  give  a  disproportionate 
attention  to  the  aboriginal  races.     By  the  speedier 

1  Report  of  Amer.  Bapt.  Miss.   Union,  for  1868. 

2  The  Madras  Observer  states  that  a  gentleman,  not  in  sympathy 
with  the  Baptists,  but  a  great  traveller,  performing  his  journeys  on 
foot,  said,  that  on  one  occasion  he  found  himself  for  seventeen  succes- 
sive nights  at  the  end  of  his  days'  journeys  through  the  forest,  in  a 
native  Christian  village.  He  also  bore  a  high  testimony  to  the  relig- 
iousness of  the  people,  more  particularly  to  their  strict  observance  of 
the  Sabbath,  and  their  abstinence  from  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors. 
Bombay  Guardian,  Oct.  31,  1868. 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  233 

results  thus  obtained,  the  churches  at  home  were 
prepared  to  enter  upon  the  more  costly  and  protracted 
efforts  in  the  more  populous  and  difficult  regions. 

5.  The  Santhals  inhabit  a  country  through  which 
the  railway  of  the  Ganges  valley  passes,  not  very  far 
to  the  northwest  of  Calcutta.  In  1865,  three  years 
ago,  there  were  only  three  Santhal  Christians ;  now 
there  are  four  hundred. 

The  Coles  inhabit  a  fine  table-laud,  three  hundred 
miles  west  of  Calcutta,  and  are  devil- worshippers, 
and  exceedingly  debased  in  morals.  The  Germans 
commenced  a  mission  among  them  in  1845.  Their 
first  convert  was  not  till  after  five  years.  Since 
then,  the  progress  has  been  constant ;  and  the  native 
converts  have  done  far  more  to  spread  the  gospel, 
than  the  missionaries.  "Who  taught  you  about 
Jesus  Christ  ?  "  asked  a  missionary  of  an  intelligent 
native  woman.  "  Who  ?  "  was  her  reply ;  "  why  this 
teaching  is  all  over  the  country."  She  had  in  view 
the  self-propagating  spirit  of  the  native  converts. 
The  number  of  communicants,  at  the  latest  date,  was 
fifteen  hundred,  and  that  of  the  nominal  Christians 
was  much  larger. 

The  most  remarkable  success  in  India,  as  regards 
numbers,  has  been  among  the  Shanars,  a  great  tribe 
of  devil-worshippers,  within  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  of  Cape  Comorin.  Thirteen  years  ago,  it  was 
my  privilege  to  pass,  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thompson, 


234  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

through  their  country,  and  to  witness  many  interest- 
ing scenes.  Dr.  Mullens,  who  preceded  us,  charac- 
terizes the  Shanars,  in  their  heathen  condition,  as 
"  an  oppressed  race ;  living  on  palm  sugar ;  climbing 
trees,  with  hard,  daily  toil ;  untaught ;  with  scarcely 
an  idea  about  God;  fearing  only  the  powers  that 
work  in  the  sky,  air,  and  earth,  close  around  them ; 
their  only  recreations  the  wild  dances  of  devil  priests, 
with  the  loud  drumming  and  rude  feasts  that  ever 
accompanied  the  dances."  "  They  have  been  easy 
to  win,"  he  says,  "  but  hard  to  raise."  Yet  we  may 
remember  what  Mr.  Thomas,  the  able  missionary 
among  this  people,  said  concerning  the  ten  thousand 
converted  Shanars  under  his  care.  The  missionaries 
employed  in  this  field  during  the  last  twenty  years, 
though  generally  able  men,  were  backward,  until  of 
late,  to  ordain  native  pastors.  But  the  native  preach- 
ers among  this  people  number  over  five  hundred, 
and  the  nominal  Christians  are  estimated  at  one 
hundred  thousand;  all  separated  from  heathenism, 
formed  into  congregations  for  regular  Christian  wor- 
ship, with  their  names  all  on  the  mission  rolls. 
These  native  Christians  contributed  120,000  (in 
gold)  for  religious  purposes,  in  the  year  I8664  The 
Rev.  John  Thomas  Tucker  died  in  that  year.  He 
was  connected  wdtli  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
in  Southern  India,  and,  during  a  mission  of  twenty 
years  among  this  people,  baptized  three  thousand 
five  hundred  Christian  converts.    And  these  converts 


SUCCESS  OF  MISl^IONS.  235 

he  saw  destroy,  with  their  own  hands,  fifty-four  devil 
temples,  and  build  sixty-four  houses  for  Christian 
worship.  He  had  also  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
thirteen  of  his  native  converts  ordained  to  the  work 
of  the  gospel  ministry. 

6.  The  successes  among  the  more  degraded  and 
accessible  classes  of  India,  seem  to  me  not  to  com- 
pare, in  importance  and  value,  with  results  already 
attained  in  the  vast  East  India  empire  of  Brah- 
minism.  In  this  Brahminic  empire,  there  are  now 
missionary  laborers  at  more  than  a  thousand  sta- 
tions and  out-stations;  and  nowhere  do  they  ap- 
pear to  labor  in  vain.  Dr.  Mullens  declares,  that 
"the  greatest  fruit  of  all  missionary  labor  in  India, 
is  in  the  mighty  changes  produced  in  the  knowledge 
and  convictions  of  the  people  at  large."  He  assures 
us,  that  "  the  Hindus  are  learning,  everywhere,  that 
an  idol  is  nothing,  and  that  bathing  in  the  Ganges 
cannot  cleanse  away  sin."  He  declares  his  belief 
that,  while  the  vested  interests  of  idolatry  are  of 
enormous  value,  while  Brahmin  families  may  be 
counted  by  millions,  while  the  Hindu  system  dates 
back  long  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  and  is  a  most 
formidable  antagonist;  "yet  even  Hinduism,  so 
powerful,  so  rich,  so  ancient,  is  giving  way  at  every 
point."  1 

1  Dr.  Mullens,  at  the  Conference  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  in 
Amsterdam. 


236  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

The  same  distinguished  missionary  also  says,  that 
knowledge  of  gospel  truth  is  spreading  more  widely 
every  year,  that  it  is  moulding  the  opinions  of  native 
society,  and  is  the  only  power  that  has  increasiiig 
influence.  He  says,  that  everywhere  in  India,  in 
Ceylon,  in  Burmah,  in  the  great  cities,  in  the  open 
country,  in  the  seats  of  commerce  and  of  govern- 
ment, and  in  the  centres  of  native  opinion,  "  it  is 
Christianity  alone,  which  makes  real  advance ; "  and 
that  the  Christian  agency  "  was  never  more  com- 
pact, more  judiciously  located,  more  steady  in  its 
working,  more  calm  and  quiet  in  its  tone."  ^ 

I  am  now  speaking  of  the  Hindus.  Considerahle 
time  must  be  allowed  for  a  general  religious  and 
social  change  to  take  place  among  a  hundred 
thousand  people,  whose  religious  and  social  habits 
date  back  three  thousand  years.  But  they  are 
human  beings,  with  minds  like  our  own,  capable  of 
being  influenced  and  moulded  by  the  gospel ;  and 
they  are  tenacious  of  their  convictions,  when  once 
on  the  side  of  the  gospel,  as  we  saw  marvelously 
demonstrated  in  the  great  rebellion. 

A  recent  India  statement  places  the  number  of 
communicants  in  the  churches  at  fifty  thousand,  and 
the  number  of  nominal  Christians  at  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand ;  and  puts  their  annual  contribu- 
tions for  religious  objects  as  high  as  $100,000.^    Dr. 

1  Ten  Years'  Missionary  Labor  in  India,  p.  196, 
"^  Friend  of  India. 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  237 

Mullens  states  the  number  of  missionaries  in  India 
to  be  five  hundred  and  eighty,  and  estimates  the 
number  of  native  helpers  at  more  than  two  thou- 
sand.i 

An  extract  from  the  "  Church  Missionary  Intelli- 
gencer," for  October,  1868,  gives  a  striking  view  of 
the  recent  condition  of  the  India  mind.  "  In  India, 
the  present  time  is  a  season  of  disruption,  not  of  ice 
and  frost,  but  of  prejudices  and  popular  superstitions 
which  have  long  fettered  the  energies  of  the  natives. 
The  sullen  reign  of  Brahminical  idolatry  has  been 
invaded  by  influences,  at  first  despised,  but  which 
have  gathered  strength,  and  are  manifesting  their 
power;  and  the  native  mind,  breaking  forth  from 
the  old  prescriptive  bonds,  is  coming  widely  into 
action.  yThe  unquestioning  servility  wherewith  dense 
masses  of  population  had  submitted  themselves  to 
the  degrading  superstitions  submitted  to  them  by 
former  generations,  is  at  an  end.  Men  no  longer 
consider  themselves  as  shut  up  in  the  religious  opin- 
ions of  their  fathers,  and  bound  to  think  only  as  they 
thought.  They  have  discovered  what  it  is  to  be  in- 
tellectually  free ;  and  as  the  old  prejudices,  no  longer 
able  to  endure  the  strain,  yield  and  break,  the  human 
mind,  rushing  forth  with  a  wild  impetuosity  of  move- 
ment, not  only  casts  off  what  is  false,  but,  confound- 
ing all  distinctions  of  right  and  wrong,  liberty  and 
license,  antagonizes  against  that  truth  of  God  which 

1  London  and  Calcutta,  p.  l37.     See  Appendix  VI. 


238  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

would  exercise  over  it  a  just  control,  and  preserve  it 
from  extravagance.  There  is  a  conflict  of  opinions : 
there  is  therefore  cause  for  anxiety,  and  a  pressing 
necessity  for  wise  and  arduous  efl*orts  on  the  part  of 
all  who  desire  the  true  happiness  and  prosperity  of 
India,  lest  the  educated  Hindus,  the  first  fruits  of 
India's  emancipation,  in  ceasing  to  be  idolatrous,  be- 
come stereotyped  in  skepticism." 

7.  The  remarkable  triumphs  of  grace  in  the  island 
of  Madagascar,  inhabited  by  the  negro  race,  were 
stated  in  a  former  chapter,  and  need  not  be  now  re- 
peated.i  It  will  be  remembered  that,  not  long  after 
the  gospel  had  been  planted,  the  English  mission- 
aries were  driven  away  by  a  pagan  queen,  and  that 
the  native  converts,  left  to  themselves,  and  subjected 
to  a  terrible  persecution  for  twenty-five  years,  yet 
grew  in  numbers ;  so  that,  only  seven  years  after 
the  return  of  the  missionaries,  there  were  ninety 
churches  and  one  hundred  and  one  pastors,  within 
and  around  the  metropolis ;  and  the  church- members 
were  five  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty-five,  and 
the  nominal  Christians  twenty  thousand.  I  think 
nothing  more  remarkable  than  this  is  found  in  the 
history  of  missions.  In  ^Ye  years,  subsequent  to 
1861,  the  people  erected  a  hundred  simple  houses 
for  worship  at  their  own  cost.  And  only  two  years 
later,  we  have  authentic  information,  that  a  new 

1  See  Chapter  VIII. 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  239 

queen  and  her  government  have  publicly  renounced 
idolatry,  sent  away  the  great  idol,  and  stopped  the 
government  works  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  that  the 
places  of  Christian  worship  are  crowded  to  excess. 
At  one  large  church  erected  by  the  missionaries, 
more  than  two  thousand  were  counted  in  one  church 
on  the  Sabbath. 1 

8.  Equatorial  Africa,  it  would  seem,  must  be 
evangelized  by  her  own  sable  sons ;  and  our  lately 
emancipated  millions  should  do  the  work.  The  loss 
of  life  among  white  missionaries  from  the  climate, 
demonstrates  this,  but  their  labors  have  also  demon- 
strated the  feasibility  of  the  work.  I  may  not  repeat 
the  marvelous  but  well  authenticated  story  already 
related  concerning  the  labors  and  successes  of  Mr. 
Johnson  at  Sierra  Leone.^  The  most  promising 
mission  now  in  Western  Africa,  is  perhaps  the  purely 
African  mission  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  on 
the  river  Niger,  under  the  guiding  influence  of  that 
highly  respectable  negro  bishop,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Crow- 
ther,  who  was  taken  from  the  hold  of  a  slave-ship 
when  a  boy,  brought  to  Sierra  Leone,  and  educated 
there  and  in  England.  The  missions  along  the 
West  African  coast,  are  estimated  to  contain  a 
nominally  Christian  population  of  more  than  fifty 
thousand  ;  thus  forming  an  excellent  base  for  future 
missionary  operations  in  the  interior. 

1  Christian  World.  2  gee  Chapter  VIU. 


240  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

Ill  respect  to  South  Africa,  it  should  perhaps  be 
said  that  the  grand  result  of  the  missions  there  has 
been  to  save  the  Hottentot,  Kaffir,  and  other  tribes, 
from  being  utterly  destroyed  by  the  Dutch  and  Eng- 
lish colonists,  who  would  fain  have  seized  their  lands, 
and  either  massacred  the  people,  or  reduced  them  to 
slavery.  Were  it  not  for  the  blessing  of  God  on  the 
missions,  such  would  doubtless  have  been  the  result 
over  the  whole  country,  from  Cape  Town  to  Natal, 
and  far  interior. 

The  first  missionary  was  a  Moravian,  who  com- 
menced his  labors  in  1736.  Visiting  Europe  after  a 
few  years,  the  heartless  Dutch  India  Company  for- 
bade his  return,  and  a  half  century  passed  away, 
with  a  benighted  generation,  ere  the  mission  was 
resumed. 

Soon  after  the  return  of  the  Moravians,  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Vanderkemp  arrived,  sent  by  the  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society.  He  has  been  followed  by 
many  other  missionaries  from  various  societies ;  and 
South  Africa  is  now  occupied  through  fourteen  de- 
grees of  latitude,  and  nearly  as  many  of  longitude, 
and  the  number  of  church-members  connected  with 
the  various  missionary  societies  exceeds  twenty  thou- 
sand. In  a  qualified  sense,  it  may  be  regarded  as  a 
Christian  country. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  missions  in  this  part 
of  Africa,  there  is  much  to  awaken  both  a  painful 
and  a  pleasing  interest.     The  bloody  raids,  or  "  com- 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  241 

mandoes,"  as  they  were  called,  sent  forth  by  the 
colonial  governments  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  ex- 
terminating the  Bushmen,  may  well  excite  our  hor- 
ror. A  missionary  once  knew  a  Dutch  farmer,  who 
said  he  had  been  on  nearly  fifty  commandoes,  and 
claimed  to  have  himself  killed  hundreds  of  the 
natives.  Sometimes  villages  were  surprised,  the 
men  murdered,  the  cattle  captured,  and  women  and 
children  carried  away  to  be  bond- slaves  of  the  mur- 
derers of  their  husbands  and  fathers.  Were  we 
seeking  for  evidences  of  total  depravity,  we  might 
find  it  there.  The  career  of  those  wicked  men  was 
arrested  many  years  since  by  the  bold  appeals  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Philip,  of  the  London  Missionary  So- 
ciety, to  the  Christian  public  of  England. 

On  the  other  hand,  some  noted  instances  of  the 
transforming  power  of  the  gospel  are  furnished  by 
the  South  African  missions.  Who  has  not  heard, 
for  instance,  of  Africaner,  a  Hottentot  chief  on  the 
western  side  of  the  continent?  His  native  hills 
were  within  a  hundred  miles  of  Cape  Town.  These 
becoming  occupied  by  Dutch  invaders,  Africaner  and 
his  brothers  were  driven  north.  At  length,  taking 
refuge  beyond  the  Orange  River,  he  became  a  daring 
robber  chief,  and  spread  the  terror  of  his  name  over 
a  wide  region.  The  colonial  governments  oflfered 
rewards  for  his  capture,  or  death,  and  commandoes 
were  sent  against  him,  but  in  vain.  Berend,  a  Gri- 
qua  chief  in  his  neighborhood,  was  hired  to  make 

16 


242  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

war  upon  him,  and  between  them  there  were  many 
bloody  conflicts.  Tribes  fled  at  Africaner's  approach. 
The  desert  was  afraid  of  him,  and  he  was  a  terror 
even  to  the  English  colony.  In  1818,  the  well- 
known  missionary,  Mr.  Moifat,  ventured  to  take  up 
his  abode  with  Africaner,  and  from  that  time  the 
robber  was  a  man  of  peace.  He  was  a  new  man. 
His  temper,  deportment,  habits  were  changed.  He 
was  the  missionary's  friend  and  helper,  his  nurse  in 
sickness,  an  indefatigable  reader  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  zealous  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel. 
Next  year  he  accompanied  Mr.  Moffat  to  Cape  Town, 
but  such  was  the  dread  of  his  name  along  the  route, 
and  the  incredulity  as  to  his  conversion,  that  it  was 
difficult  to  know  how  to  convey  him  safely.  When 
at  the  Cape,  men  wondered  at  the  mildness  of  the 
outlaw,  on  whose  head  a  price  had  been  set,  and  the 
good  people  were  delighted  with  his  piety  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  Scriptures. 

On  his  return  homeward,  Africaner  met  with 
Berend,  the  Griqua  chief,  with  whom  he  had  had  so 
many  deadly  encounters.  Both  were  now  converts, 
and  they  sat  down  together  in  the  tent  of  the 
missionary,  and  united  in  hymns  of  praise,  and  in 
prayers  to  a  common  Father  in  heaven.  Two  years 
later,  Africaner  entered  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord.^ 

9.  The  triumphs  of  grace,  contemplated  thus  far, 

1  Moffat's  Missionary  Labors,  etc.,  p.  182. 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  243 

have  all  been  among  pagans.  Coming  into  Western 
Asia,  we  should  find  ourselves  among  the  degenerate 
churches  of  the  East,  and  what  we  are  now  to  con- 
template, so  far  as  space  will  allow,  is  the  progress 
of  a  reform  among  a  people  nominally  Christian. 

I  must  pass  by  the  Arabs  of  Syria,  the  Turks,  the 
Bulgarians,  and  the  Nestorians ;  though  of  the  Nes- 
tor ians  I  ought  to  say,  that  more  than  six  hundred 
are  recognized  by  the  missionaries  as  worthy  com- 
municants, and  nearly  seventy  of  the  Neatorian  eccle- 
siastics are  evangelical  preachers  of  the  gospel. 

I  can  only  state  some  of  the  leading  facts  illus- 
trating the  blessing  of  God  on  the  mission  to  the 
Armenians,  numbenng  about  two  millions. 

How  much  that  people  needed  a  republication  of 
the  gospel,  and  a  religious  reformation,  is  evident 
from  their  calling  on  the  Virgin  Mary  as  their 
mediator,  and  not  upon  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  that 
they  hold  to  auricular  confession,  to  absolution  by 
the  priest,  to  penance,  tran substantiation,  baptismal 
regeneration,  intercession  of  saints  and  angels,  to 
the  worship  of  the  cross,  relics,  and  pictures,  and  to 
prayers  for  the  dead.^ 

The  Bible  Society  was  in  the  field  as  early  as  1813, 
with  the  version  of  the  Bible  in  the  ancient  but  un- 
spoken language  of  the  Armenian  people.  Editions 
were  afterwards  circulated  in  the  spoken  languages, 
and  then  it  was  that  the  priesthood  commenced  their 

1  Dwight's  Christianity  in  Turkey. 


244  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

opposition.  The  native  Protestants  were  calumni- 
ated, imprisoned,  plundered,  exiled,  and  all  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  Sultan  Mahmoud.  But  God  in- 
terposed. The  army  of  the  Sultan  was  overthrown 
by  the  Egyptians,  on  the  plains  of  Nezib,  and  Mah- 
moud's  death  in  his  own  palace  followed  after  a  few 
days.  The  exiles  were  then  recalled,  and  the  reform 
gained  in  notoriety  and  public  sympathy  more  than 
it  had  lost.     This  was  in  1839. 

Four  years  later,  the  execution  in  Constantinople 
of  an  Armenian,  who  had  embraced  Mohammedan- 
ism and  afterwards  renounced  it,  led  the  Christian 
powers  of  Europe  to  demand  a  pledge  from  the  Sul- 
tan, that  no  such  insult  to  the  religion  of  Christian 
Europe  should  be  repeated,  and  the  pledge  was 
given. 

At  that  time,  some  thousands  in  Constantinople 
were  intellectually  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the 
evangelical  doctrine,  and  there  were  many  such  in 
the  provinces.  The  first  evangelical  church  was 
organized  at  Constantinople  in  1846,  and  the  holy 
influence  extending  across  the  Taurus  Mountains, 
a  church  was  gathered  at  Aintab  in  Central  Tur- 
key, and  one  of  the  largest  Protestant  congregations 
in  the  empire. 

In  1847,  the  English  ambassador  procured  an  im- 
perial decree  constituting  the  native  Protestants  a 
separate  and  independent  community.  And  this 
was  soon  placed  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  change. 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  245 

by  what  is  called  a  Hatti-Sherif,  having  the  imperial 
autograph,  which  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
Protestants. 

I  have  already  illustrated  the  remarkable  progress 
of  the  gospel  at  Aintab  and  Marash,  in  Central  Tur- 
key, and  also  at  Harpoot,  in  the  eastern  section  of 
the  empire.^  Suffice  it  now  to  say,  concerning  the 
mission  to  the  Armenians,  that  it  numbers  sixty- 
three  Protestant  or  evangelical  churches,  contain- 
ing two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  sixty-six  mem- 
bers. Of  native  pastors  there  are  thirty-six,  nearly 
all  supported  by  the  people ;  forty  licensed  preach- 
ers, nearly  three  hundred  native  helpers,  of  pupils 
in  the  schools  six  thousand ;  and  of  acknowledged 
Protestants  about  fourteen  thousand,  but  the  num- 
ber of  those  who  are  really  Protestant  in  opinion 
and  feeling  must  be  far  greater. 

Behold  now  the  camp-fires  of  Immanuel's  army, 
—  extending  over  a  large  proportion  of  the  Pacific 
Islands,  along  the  Chinese  coast  and  into  its  in- 
terior, over  the  greater  part  of  India,  over  Western 
Asia,  on  the  great  island  of  Madagascar,  over  almost 
the  whole  of  South  Africa  and  along  its  western 
coast  for  two  thousand  miles,  in  the  frozen  regions 
of  Labrador  and  Greenland,  and  among  the  Indians 
of  our  own  West  and  the  British  Northwest. 

Does  any  one  think  that  these  fires  will  be  suf- 

1  See  Chapter  VIII. 


246  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

fered  to  die  out  ?  that  this  army  of  Immanuel,  giv- 
ing up  in  shameful  defeat,  will  retire  before  the 
powers  of  darkness  ?  Will  He,  who  gave  his  life  to 
ransom  the  world  from  sin,  under  whose  banner  and 
in  obedience  to  whose  command  this  army  has  gone 
forth,  ever  forsake  it  while  loyal  to  his  cause? 

Should  the  army  of  invasion  seem  to  any  to  be 
a  little  flock,  still  it  is  the  "  little  flock  "  to  which 
the  Lord  Jesus  declares  it  is  the  Father's  good  pleas- 
ure to  give  the  kingdom.  It  is  an  army,  of  which 
it  is  foretold,  that  "  one  shall  chase  a  thousand,  and 
two  put  ten  thousand  to  flight."  It  is  further  to 
be  considered,  that  every  true  convert  becomes  of 
course  a  loyal  soldier  for  life,  and  these  loyal  soldiers 
are  increasing  by  thousands  every  year. 

The  number  of  mission  churches  at  present  in 
the  unevangelized  regions,  is  two  thousand  and  five 
hundred ;  of  church-members,  more  than  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  ;  and  the  nominal  Christians 
may  be  reckoned  at  not  less  than  a  million.  The 
ordained  missionaries,  nearly  two  thousand  in  num- 
ber, are  ah-eady  greatly  outnumbered  by  the  native 
preachers,  and  the  gospel  is  taking  root  in  at  least 
four  thousand  places  beyond  the  bounds  of  Chris- 
tendom.^ 

Persecution  cannot  arrest  this  work;  it  would 
rather  facilitate  its  progress.  The  Romish  Church 
cannot  greatly  retard  it ;  it  will  rather  serve  as  an 

1  See  Appendix  VIII. 


SUCCESS  OF  MISSIONS.  247 

incitement  to  the  Protestant  Church.  Nor  will  the 
wars  of  Christendom.  The  missions  had  their  rise 
when  Christendom  was  in  arms.  In  no  way  can  the 
progress  of  these  missions  he  arrested,  except  hy  a 
general  decline  in  the  evangelical  churches ;  and  it 
is  undouhtedly  a  fact  that  foreign  missions,  vigor- 
ously prosecuted,  will  themselves  almost  ensure 
against  the  possibility  of  such  a  decline. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

CLAIMS  OF  MISSIONS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS. 

Excessive  Claims  of  the  Churches.  —  Unsafe  to  decide  the  Question 
of  Duty  before  Inquiry.  —  How  many  Missionaries  the  Churches  will 
support.  —  How  many  are  needed.  —  The  Sort  of  Men  needed. 
From  whence  they  are  to  come.  —  How  early  the  Question  of  Duty 
should  be  decided.  —  Reflex  Influence  of  Missionaries.  —  The  Call 
for  Pastors  to  become  Missionaries.  —  The  Pastoral  Office  now,  and 
in  Apostolic  Times.  — A  Common  Responsibility. 

I  PROPOSE  to  inquire  what  are  the  claims  of 
foreign  missions  upon  young  ministers  of  the  gos- 
pel. But  before  doing  this,  I  must  ask  attention  to 
two  preliminary  inquiries. 

The  first  is,  Whether  the  claims  assei-ted  by  the 
churches  at  home  upon  the  personal  services  of  the 
gospel  ministry,  are  excessive.  It  is  a  well-known 
fact,  that  eveiy  local  church  feels  itself  entitled  to 
the  best  minister  it  can  get.  I  hardly  need  to  illus- 
trate the  force  and  extent  of  this  sentiment  in  the 
churches.  It  is  the  same  in  every  denomination.  In 
a  population  not  exceeding  fifteen  hundred  souls, 
with  as  many  as  three  evangelical  churches  of  differ- 
ent denominations,  each  having  a  competent  pastor, 
with  seats  in  the  houses  of  worship  enough  to  accom- 
modate every  family,  and  with  a  Sabbath-school  for 


CLAIMS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS.  249 

every  child  ;  yet  if  there  be  a  number  of  evangelical 
residents,  who  belong  to  neither  of  these  denomina- 
tions, they  will  feel  it  right  to  organize  a  fourth 
church,  and  to  bring  a  fourth  evangelical  minister 
into  the  place,  if  they  can,  even  though  obliged  to 
ask  aid  from  the  Home  Missionary  Society ;  and  per- 
haps they  would  not  be  restrained  should  the  conse- 
quence of  this  be,  that  one  of  the  other  churches  will 
also  feel  the  need  of  asking  home  missionary  aid. 

The  question  I  raise  is  this,  —  and  I  do  it  in  the 
interest  of  a  perishing  world,  —  Whether  the  funda- 
mental law  of  benevolence  in  Christ's  kingdom  does 
not  make  this  an  excessive  and  unauthorized  demand 
upon  the  ministry ;  and  whether,  in  all  such  cases, 
the  question  of  a  right  so  to  do,  ought  not  to  be 
seriously  entertained  by  the  churches,  and  by  can- 
didates, councils,  presbyteries,  and  the  home  mis- 
sionary committees  and  societies. 

My  second  preliminary  inquiry  is  this :  May  a 
candidate  for  the  gospel  ministry  safely  assume,  be- 
fore inquiry,  that  his  appointed  field  of  labor  is  in 
his  native  land  ?  I  do  not  think  that  he  can.  The 
Head  of  the  Church  has  certainly  a  specific  work, 
and  a  specific  post,  for  each  of  us,  for  which  he  has 
given  us  some  special  fitness,  and  which  he  will  make 
known  to  us,  if  we  are  willing  to  do  his  will,  and 
institute  the  proper  inquiries.  The  kingdom  of  our 
blessed  Lord  evidently  has  no  national  boundaries. 


250  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

"The  field  is  the  world ;"  and  the  Redeemer  will 
not  be  "  satisfied  with  the  travail  of  his  soul,"  until 
his  kingdom  become  coextensive  with  the  earth. 
The  time  has  now  evidently  arrived,  when  the 
churches  and  ministers  of  Christ  are  bound  to  aim 
directly  at  that  result.  Were  universal  conquest  the 
leading  object  of  our  nation,  then  every  student  in 
our  military  and  naval  schools  would  regard  the  field 
of  his  duty  as  in  some  sense  coextensive  with  the 
world.  In  the  naval  service,  indeed,  it  is  scarcely 
otherwise  now.  And  are  not  candidates  for  the  gos- 
pel ministry  in  training  for  the  world  ?  Can  any 
man,  preparing  to  act  under  Christ's  commission, 
say,  before  inquiry,  where  will  be  his  post  of  duty  ? 
When  this  is  done,  I  have  always  felt  that  it  is  at 
great  peril.  It  is  a  self-evident  truth,  that  we  are 
nowhere  so  likely  to  enjoy  the  presence  of  Christ, 
and  success  to  our  labors  consequent  on  the  influ- 
ences of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  in  the  path  of  our  duty. 
Is  it  not  so  ?  Where  else  can  we  be  assured  of  the 
promise,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  ?  "  I  see  not  how  to 
escape  from  this  conviction ;  nor  is  it  an  unpleasant 
one  to  entertain.  Allow  me  to  refer  to  my  own  ex- 
perience. Few  ministers  of  the  gospel  have  been 
providentially  called  to  travel  more  over  the  world 
than  I  have  been,  or  have  been  placed  where  they 
have  more  felt  the  need  of  the  divine  presence  and 
aid ;  and  there  is  no  telling  the  sweet  influence,  at 
such  times,  of  au  assurance,  th^^t  we  ^re  in  the  very 


CLAIMS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS.  251 

place  and  the  very  work  God  has  assigned  us. 
Young  ministers  will  feel  this  hereafter,  as  they  can- 
not now,  especially  in  the  great  emergencies  of  life. 
For  a  young  minister  to  decide  upon  his  post  of  duty 
before  a  conscientious  inquiry,  is  like  an  officer  in  the 
army  acting  without  having  read  the  instructions  of 
his  commander. 

I  now  enter  upon  my  main  inquiry,  namely  — 
The  extent  of  the  claim  of  foreign  missions  upon 
young  ministers  of  the  gospel.    The  subject  resolves 
itself  into  several  distinct  inquiries. 

1.  How  many  missionaries  may  it  be  presumed 
the  churches  will  support  ?  Missionaries  derive  their 
support  from  the  churches  at  home ;  there  being  the 
same  objection  to  their  receiving  it  from  churches 
gathered  among  the  heathen,  that  there  was  in  the 
days  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  There  are  indeed  few  well 
defined  facts,  on  which  to  base  a  precise  answer  to 
this  inquiry.  The  American  Board,  for  instance, 
as  I  can  bear  testimony,  has  never,  in  a  single 
instance,  deemed  it  wise  to  decline  the  proffered  ser- 
vices of  a  missionary  for  wan^  of  funds ;  nor  am  I 
aware  that  the  thought  was  ever  really  entertained 
of  recalling  a  missionary  from  the  field  for  that 
reason.  We  have  no  more  certain  means  of  know- 
ing how  far  the  churches  may  be  induced  to  go  in 
supporting  missionaries,  than  our  government  had, 
in  the  year  1861,  of  knowing  how  far  the  nation 


262  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

would  go  in  supporting  an  army  for  putting  down 
the  great  rebellion.  The  enthusiasm  of  young  men 
to  enlist  as  soldiers,  had  everywhere  the  effect  to 
stimulate  the  patriotism  and  call  forth  the  energies 
of  the  country.  So  it  is  in  missions.  I  have  often 
felt,  that  the  pecuniary  embarrassments  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  were  owing  more  to  the  tardy  accessions 
of  new  missionaries,  than  to  any  other  cause.  The 
declaration,  "  Here  are  we,  send  us,"  when  heard  by 
the  churches,  has  a  wonderfully  animating  influence. 
Nor  would  the  ascertained  disbelief  of  the  churches 
in  their  own  ability  to  support  double  or  quadruple 
the  number  of  missionaries  now  in  the  field,  however 
positive  that  disbelief  might  be,  any  more  prove 
their  actual  inability,  than  was  their  well-known 
want  of  faith  in  their  ability  to  support  the  six  mis- 
sionaries, who  came  forward  in  the  year  1810. 

I  have  long  believed,  and  do  now  as  confidently  as 
ever,  that  no  man,  fitted  for  the  missionary  service, 
is  justified  in  declining  a  mission  from  the  apprehen- 
sion that  he  will  not  be  supported  in  the  field.  And 
I  should  be  greatly  surprised  if  the  man  is  living, 
who  will  ever  know  of  a  well  informed  missionary 
society  declining,  for  that  reason  alone,  the  services 
of  a  competent  missionary  candidate. 

2.  My  second  question  is  :  How  many  missionaries 
are  needed?  Recruits  are  in  constant  demand  to 
keep  the  number  of  missionaries  good.     But  mis- 


CLAIMS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS.  253 

sionary  conquests  cannot  be  made,  or  even  held,  by 
simply  doing  this.  In  missions  we  must  advance, 
or  we  shall  lose  ground.  And  with  such  prepara- 
tions as  now  exist  for  diffusing  Christianity,  the  idea 
of  an  arrest  of  progress  ought  never  to  be  enter- 
tained. The  existing  system  of  missionary  societies 
is  competent  to  superintend  and  carry  forward  a  vastly 
enlarged  system  of  missions.  In  the  business  of  the 
world,  large  trading  or  manufacturing  establish- 
ments are  found  more  economical  than  small  ones, 
and  it  is  so  in  missions.  It  is  not  necessary  to  in- 
crease the  existing  number  of  missionary  societies. 
Suppose  the  missions  all  to  be  organized  for  self- 
government  (as  most  of  the  American  missions  are), 
then  it  is  obvious,  that  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
well  educated  missionaries  will  add  to  the  self-direct- 
ing power  of  the  missions,  and  so  diminish  the 
responsibility  resting  upon  committees  at  home. 
Again,  suppose  that  the  churches  among  the  heathen 
are  all  formed  on  the  self-governing,  self-supporting, 
self-propagating  plan,  as  the  churches  founded  by 
St.  Paul  evidently  were,  then  I  see  not  why  the  ex- 
isting missionary  societies,  enlarging  their  opera- 
tions by  a  regular  progression,  would  not  suffice  for 
superintending  missions  all  over  the  heathen  world  ; 
embracing  thousands  of  missionaries,  and  tens  of 
thousands  of  native  pastors  and  preachers.  There 
would  not  necessarily  be  any  insupportable  weight 
of  responsibility  resting  on  committees   and  exec- 


254  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

utive  officers.  Permit  me  again  to  illustrate  by  the 
missions,  with  which  I  have  long  been  connected. 
With  five  hundred  missionaries,  instead  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty,  as  at  present,  the  weekly  meetings 
of  the  executive  committee  would  only  need  to  be 
somewhat  more  prolonged  occasionally,  but  I  think 
not  to  be  multiplied.  The  home  department  might 
require  an  additional  secretary,  and  the  foreign  de- 
partment an  assistant  secretary,  and  the  treasurer 
would  need  an  assistant  and  some  additional  clerks. 
But  the  increase  of  labor  and  cost,  and  the  increase 
of  difficulty  in  the  administration,  would  bear  no  pro- 
portion to  the  increase  in  the  magnitude  and  work- 
ing power  of  the  system.  Indeed,  the  percentage  of 
cost  would  diminish  with  the  increase  of  business. 
The  official  correspondence  would  not  keep  pace  with 
the  increase  in  the  number  of  missionaries ;  for  the 
larger  the  missions,  the  more  will  they  be  self- 
reliant,  and  the  less  need  will  there  be  of  writing  often 
to  individuals.  Nor  am  I  able  to  perceive  a  limit  to 
possible  discoveries  in  respect  to  the  relations  of 
things,  and  the  settling  of  principles  and  usages,  and 
the  systematizing  of  labors.  There  has  been  an 
immense  advance  in  experience  during  the  past  fifty 
years.  Problems  and  processes  of  thought,  that  op- 
pressed the  minds  of  the  early  secretaries,  have  long 
been  embodied  in  maxims  and  usages ;  and  though 
numerous  problems  remain  to  be  resolved,  and  new 
ones  are  constantly  arising,  the  solutions  are  going 


CLAIMS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS.  255 

on,  and  the  chaos  of  facts  is  coming  into  something 
like  order  and  beauty.  This  progress  is  constant, 
under  the  laws  of  Christ's  kingdom,  nor  is  there 
any  apparent  end  to  it.  And  the  effect  is  continually 
to  enlarge  the  ability  of  the  executive  officers  to 
attend  to  the  increasing  business  of  their  several 
departments. 

Though  this  reasoning  does  not  give  a  definite  re- 
ply to  the  question,  "  How  many  missionaries  are 
needed  ?  "  it  shows  that  very  many  more  would  find 
ample  employment,  than  there  is  any  present  pros- 
pect of  obtaining. 

3.  What  sort  of  men  are  needed?  It  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  the  military  academy  at  West  Point 
furnished  leaders  for  both  of  the  contending  armies 
in  the  late  war.  And  leaders  of  a  similar  grade  are 
required  in  the  foreign  missions,  and  for  similar  rea- 
sons. The  incipient  work  of  planting,  organizing, 
and  training  churches,  composed  of  converts  from 
heathenism,  even  in  the  most  barbarous  countries, 
requires  more  talent,  as  I  have  already  said,  than  is 
ordinarily  demanded  for  the  pastoral  office  at  home. 
For  you  have  to  deal  with  a  strange  people,  and  a 
strange  language,  with  strange  manners  and  cus- 
toms, with  consciences  dead  or  altogether  perverted, 
with  religions  more  depraved  than  human  nature 
itself,  and  with  social  life  that  is  rotten  to  the  core. 
With  anything  but  the  gospel  and  the  grace  of  God, 


256  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

oue  would  despair  in  such  a  field.  But  experience 
shows  that,  with  the  gospel  and  the  grace  of  God, 
there  is  useful  and  ample  scope  here  for  sanctified 
talent  of  the  highest  grade.  Taking  the  average  of 
lahors  and  results  in  the  heathen  world,  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  pastoral  life  of  our  own  favored 
country  can  show  more  abundant  fruits.  The  elo- 
quent preacher,  when  once  he  has  acquired  the  lan- 
guage, finds  his  talent  not  less  effective  there,  than 
here.  And  the  demand  for  varied  and  cultivated 
talent  is  nearly  the  same  in  all  the  fields,  as  well  in 
Polynesia  and  Africa,  as  in  India  and  China.  As  the 
mission  advances,  giving  rise  to  churches,  schools,  a 
native  ministry,  and  a  Christian  community,  there 
arises  also  a  demand  for  what  is  called  the  organiz- 
ing and  administrative  talent,  more  varied  and  more 
imperative  than  can  often  occur  in  our  home  pastoral 
life.  In  my  own  intimate  acquaintance  with  mis- 
sionaries, I  recollect  no  case  where  there  was  fitness 
for  the  work,  and  time  for  development,  where  it 
seemed  probable  there  would  have  been  a  greater 
usefulness  at  home.  Passing  by  the  immortal  pio- 
neers, I  advert  to  two  or  three  representative  men, 
whom  it  has  been  my  happiness  to  know  intimately. 
My  first  is  the  late  Dr.  William  Goodell,  of  blessed 
memory,  so  long  a  missionary  at  Constantinople. 
You  may  go  to  the  utmost  stretch  of  probable  sup- 
position of  what  would  have  been  his  usefulness  as  a 
pastor  anywhere  in  his  native  land,  and  you  will  see 


CLAIMS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS.  251 

ample  reason  to  believe,  that  at  home  he  would 
have  missed  the  sphere  for  which  he  was  made,  and 
to  which  he  was  called  of  God. 

It  was  so  with  Dr.  Eli  Smithy  who  died  in  Syria 
in  the  year  1857.  As  a  scholar,  he  excelled  most  of 
his  brethren;  as  an  accurate  observer,  he  equaled 
the  late  Dr.  Edward  Robinson ;  as  a  translator  of 
the  Scriptures,  he  had  no  superior.  He  found  his 
field  by  yielding  early  to  the  impulses  of  grace  on 
his  heart,  and  by  following  the  leadings  of  Provi- 
dence ;  and  the  peculiar  adaptedness  of  the  field  to 
his  tastes  and  talents,  was  an  after-discovery.  I 
knew  him  while  in  the  seminary,  and  had  ample 
opportunities  to  know  him  -before  entering  on  his 
mission,  and  through  all  his  missionary  life,  and  I 
never  doubted  that  his  usefulness  was  greater  as  a 
missionary,  than  it  could  have  been  anywhere  in  his 
native  land.  ^ 

It  would  be  easy  to  draw  other  illustrations  from 
missions  in  Western  Asia.  But  to  my  own  mind, 
there  are  cases  quite  as  striking  in  the  pagan  world. 
The  late  Henry  Ballantine,  of  the  Mahratta  mis- 
sion, had  a  more  fruitful  record  in  India,  —  in  the 
native  churches,  in  the  native  ministry,  in  the  hymns 
and  songs  of  the  native  worship,  than  he  could  have 
had  at  home.  And  suppose  the  late  Dr.  Miron  Wins- 
low  had  settled  as  a  pastor  in  Connecticut,  or  Dr. 
Daniel  Poor,  in  Massachusetts,  or  Dr.  David  Abeel 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  or  Dr.  Culbertson,  in  one 

17 


258  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

of  the  choicest  stations  at  home  in  the  gift  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church ;  would  they  have  been  as  use- 
ful as  they  were  in  heathen  lands  ?  I  cannot  believe 
it.  And  I  believe  the  same  might  be  affirmed,  with 
even  more  evident  truth,  concerning  many  of  their 
associates  of  lesser  fame,  both  living  and  dead. 

With  such  scope  for  talent  of  all  kinds,  and  with 
such  demand  for  it,  the  answer  to  the  question, 
"  What  sort  of  men  are  needed  ? ''  is  obvious :  We 
need  the  ablest  and  the  best. 

4.  From  whence  are  they  to  come?  My  first 
answer  is,  from  the  churches.  The  churches  have 
a  responsibility  here.  *In  very  many  of  them  there 
are  young  men  of  talents  and  character,  who  need 
only  the  advantages  of  education  to  go  forth  as 
heralds  of  the  cross.  But  few  of  them  have  the 
means  for  obtaining  an  education,  and,  as  a  body, 
they  are  therefore  turning  their  attention  to  farm- 
ing, trade,  the  mechanic  arts,  or  scientific  pursuits. 
Ought  not  every  church  and  every  pastor  to  see, 
that  Christ's  appointed  ministry  for  the  world's  con- 
version does  not  thus  suffer  loss  ?  Not  that  any  one 
church  need  assume  the  whole  expense,  except  in 
extraordinary  cases ;  but  the  young  men  should  be 
liberated  from  the  thralldom  of  the  world,  and  put 
in  the  way  of  seeking  an  education,  and  a  bountiful 
Providence  will  do  the  rest.  Were  one  fourth  or 
one   sixth   of   the  three  thousand   Congregational 


CLAIMS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS.  259 

churches,  and  one  fourth  or  one  sixth  of  the  four 
or  five  thousand  Presbyterian  churches  to  do  this, 
a  few  years  would  suffice  to  startle  and  electrify  the 
world. 

But  whatever  the  churches  may  see  fit  to  do,  we 
shall  have  to  look  to  the  theological  seminaries. 
Missionaries,  more  than  liouie  pastors,  as  a  class 
need  the  training  and  discipline  of  the  seminary. 
We  have  no  institutions  in  this  country  for  the  ex- 
clusive training  of  missionaries,  as  they  have  in 
England,  and  on  continental  Europe,  nor  do  we 
need  or  desire  them.  We  require  for  our  missiona- 
ries, with  occasional  exceptions,  an  extended  and 
thorough  education,  and  we  expect  them  generally 
to  make  equal  attainments  with  the  ministry  at 
home,  and,  at  the  same  time,  secure  the  great  ad- 
vantage of  being  fellow-students  and  companions  of 
those  who  are  to  become  pastors  of  the  churches 
which  must  furnish  the  means  of  their  support  and 
usefulness  among  the  heathen. 

There  must  be  some  way  of  approximating  the 
number  of  missionaries,  which  a  theological  institu- 
tion may  be  expected  to  afiPord.  Until  within  a  few 
years  past,  it  has  been  my  duty  to  visit  the  Seminary 
at  Andover  officially,  in  quest  of  missionaries.  I 
distinctly  remember  one  of  these  visits,  made  in  the 
year  1856,  in  which  I  had  private  interviews  with  as 
many  as  thirty-four  of  the  students  from  the  different 
classes,  who  called  on  me,  separately,  to  confer  in 


260  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

respect  to  their  duty.  My  aim  was,  as  usual,  simply 
to  aid  them  in  deciding  the  question  of  duty  for 
themselves.  I  made  a  private  memorandum  of  each 
case,  which  I  preserved,  and  from  which  I  learn,  that 
at  least  fifteen  of  those  hrethren  then  appeared  to  me 
to  have  a  clear  providential  call  to  the  missionary 
work.  The  whole  number  then  in  the  Seminary  was 
one  hundred  and  fourteen ;  and  I  was  thus  assured 
that  I  had  conferred  with  nearly  a  third  part  of  the 
students,  and  saw  evidence  in  them  of  serious  thought 
on  the  subject ;  and  that  they  would  become  mis- 
sionaries, or,  if  providentially  hindered,  would  be 
good  missionary  pastors.  I  did  not  see  those  who 
had  devoted  themselves  to  the  home  missionary  work, 
because  it  was  ever  a  set  purpose  with  me  not  to 
interfere  with  home  missions;  but  I  felt  assured 
that  they  too  would  at  least  be  missionary  pastors. 
I  also  thought  it  right  to  assume,  that  others  of  the 
two  thirds  whom  I  did  not  see,  had  already  con- 
sidered and  decided  the  question,  and  did  not  feel 
called  upon  to  reconsider  it.  In  point  of  fact,  seven 
of  those  whom  I  did  not  see,  afterwards  became 
foreign  missionaries. 

From  my  personal  knowledge  of  individual  ex- 
periences then  and  subsequently,  I  came  to  the  con- 
clusion, that  as  many  as  twenty-two  members  of  the 
Seminary,  at  that  time,  were  called  of  God  to  publish 
the  gospel  beyond  the  bounds  of  Christendom.  And 
I  feel  confident,  that  it  would  have  been  beneficial  to 


CLAIMS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS.  261 

that  institution,  to  New  England,  and  to  the  West, 
had  each  of  the  three  classes  sent  forth  as  many  as 
seven  of  their  number  into  the  unevangelized  world. 
The  number  of  those  who  actually  went  on  foreign 
missions,  was  ten,  or  about  one  in  eleven.  Of  all  who 
have  been  connected  with  that  institution  from  the 
beginning,  only  one  in  sixteen  has  become  a  foreign 
missionary.  Yet  there  are  few  theological  institu- 
tions, from  which  the  heathen  world  is  authorized 
to  expect  so  large  an  annual  contribution  of  well 
educated,  devoted  missionaries,  as  from  that  Semi- 
nary. From  the  semi-centennial  catalogue  of  Prince- 
ton Seminary,  published  in  1862,  I  learn  that,  up  to 
that  time,  its  foreign  missionaries  were  as  one  to 
seventeen.  From  the  Hartford  Seminary  I  am  in- 
formed that  fifteen,  out  of  three  hundred  and  fifteen, 
have  gone  as  foreign  missionaries.  Of  the  propor- 
tion from  other  seminaries,  I  have  not  the  means  of 
speaking  confidently. 

5.  How  early  should  the  question  of  duty  be  de- 
cided? The  earlier  the  better,  if  it  be  with  the 
Scriptural  condition, "  If  the  Lord  will."  There  will 
be  a  better  training  for  the  work.  The  decision 
can  be  reconsidered  upon  any  considerable  providen- 
tial change  in  circumstances.  A  delay  until  near 
the  close  of  the  preparatory  studies,  is  almost  sure 
to  prevent  a  thorough  and  impartial  examination, 
and  so  to  keep  the  man  at  home.     The  reasons 


262  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

need  not  be  specified.^  The  best  time  for  an  offer  of 
service  to  a  Missionary  Board  (as  I  view  the  matter), 
is  at  the  commencement  of  the  senior  year.  The 
theological  studies  are  then  generally  completed, 
the  case  is  ripe  for  consideration,  and  the  senior 
year  will  give  time  enough  for  the  needful  mental 
and  social  adjustments. 

The  effect  on  a  seminary  of  having  none  in  it 
who  are  resolved  and  active  in  relation  to  missions, 
both  home  and  foreign,  is  unfavorable  to  the  spiritual 
interests  of  the  institution.  Such  missionary  stu- 
dents as  might  easily  be  named,  were  great  spiritual 
blessings  to  their  institutions.  They  raised  the  tone 
of  piety,  and  their  influence  upon  those  who  remained 
at  home  as  pastors  must  have  been  good. 

6.  What  is  the  influence  of  foreign  missionanes 
on  the  churches  at  home  ?  —  I  mean  the  reflex  in- 
fluence of  their  mission.  The  question  is  not  as  to 
their  usefulness  on  the  whole,  nor  as  to  their  useful- 
ness in  the  foreign  field,  but  as  to  their  usefulness 
in  the  churches  of  their  native  country,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  their  going  abroad.  This  should  have  its 
weight  in  deciding  the  question  of  duty.  Mission- 
aries exert  this  reflex  influence  by  their  example,  by 
their  personal  influence  on  the  pastors  of  their 
acquaintance,  by  their  letters  through  the  channels 

1  See  Quart.  Register  of  the  American  Education  Society  for  1831, 
pp.  245-253. 


CLAIMS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS.  263 

of  their  Missionary  Boards,  by  their  private  corre- 
spondence, by  their  visits  to  their  native  land,  and 
as  being  a  constituent  part  of  the  great  foreign  mis- 
sionary organization  that  is  constantly  reacting  upon 
their  native  land.  Tell  me  if  Aldin  Grout,  of  the 
Zulu  mission  in  South  Africa,  could  have  exerted  so 
great  and  beneficial  an  influence  as  pastor  of  a  church 
at  home,  as  he  has  done  and  is  now  doing,  —  I  say 
not  among  the  Zulus  of  Africa,  —  but  upon  our 
American  churches.  It  may  be  that  even  his  visit 
home,  in  the  year  1858,  alone  exerted  a  greater  in- 
fluence on  our  churches,  than  he  could  himself  have 
exerted  upon  them  by  a  life-work  as  a  home  pastor. 
Tell  me,  if  Titus  Coan,  who  for  five  and  twenty  years 
has  been,  under  God,  the  renovating,  organizing,  gov- 
erning power  along  a  hundred  miles  of  the  Hawaiian 
shore,  —  whether  he  could  have  found  such  a  scope 
and  reward  for  his  labors  in  his  own  country  ?  This 
great  comparative  usefulness  he  could  not  indeed 
have  foreseen,  and  it  does  not  itself  prove  that  any 
other  one  would  have  been  as  useful  abroad  as  he 
has  been,  even  if  as  enterprising  and  laborious.  But 
it  shows  what  a  field  of  usefulness  he  himself  would 
have  missed,  had  he  not  listened  to  the  call  of  God 
when  in  the  Auburn  Seminary. 

And  in  what  ministerial  field  of  usefulness,  here 
at  home,  could  you  have  placed  the  late  Dr.  H.  G.  0. 
Dwight,  where  he  could  have  exerted  half  the  in- 
fluence for  good  in  the  United  States,  that  resulted 


264  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

in   his   native  land   from  his  missionary  career  in 
Turkey  ? 

How  many  beloved  names  crowd  upon  our  recol- 
lection !  We  think  of  Swartz,  of  Zieganbalg,  of 
Brainerd,  of  Henry  Martyn,  of  Judson,  of  Gordon 
Hall,  of  John  Williams,  of  Lowrie,  and  scores  of 
others  too  numerous  to  enumerate.  At  the  call 
of  God,  they  went  forth  to  proclaim  salvation  to 
the  heathen ;  and,  by  so  doing,  they  not  only  ac- 
complished more  good  abroad,  than  it  is  probable 
they  could  have  accomplished  at  home ;  but  in  so 
doing  they  seem  to  have  duplicated  their  lives, 
by  the  good  they  effected  in  their  beloved  native 
land. 

7.  Is  there  a  call  on  pastors  to  become  mission- 
aries ?  It  must  be  obvious,  that  if  any,  under  mis- 
taken impressions  of  duty,  have  settled  as  pastors, 
who  were  really  called  of  God  to  be  missionaries, 
they  cannot  be  wholly  at  ease  in  that  position ;  for 
they  are  not  in  that  path  of  duty,  where  they  are 
most  assured  of  the  Saviour's  presence,  and  of  the 
consolations  and  aids  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Such  pas- 
tors, when  seasonably  convinced  of  their  error,  will 
seek  to  correct  it ;  and  some  such,  relinquishing  their 
pastorates,  have  already  gone  into  the  foreign  field, 
and  are  happy  in  "  doing  their  first  works."  One, 
formerly  a  pastor,  has  lately  written  thus  on  the 
subject  from  his  distant  field  of  labor  :  "  Let  a  pas- 


CLAIMS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS.  265 

tor,"  he  says,  "  whose  attachments  to  his  people  are 
very  strong,  and  who  has  the  confidence  of  his  asso- 
ciates in  the  ministry,  and  some  acquaintance  with 
all  the  churches  in  the  country,  leave  his  people, 
and,  guided,  as  he  helieves,  by  the  Spirit  and  provi- 
dence of  God,  enter  heartily  upon  the  work  of  foreign 
missions ;  and  he  carries  with  him  the  sympathies 
and  prayers,  not  only  of  his  parish,  but  of  his  asso- 
ciates in  the  ministry,  and  to  some  extent  of  their 
parishes.  Now  they  will  look  upon  the  missionary 
work  with  a  new  interest.  They  know  at  least  one 
missionary,  and  they  will  watch  for  intelligence  from 
him.  They  will  read  concerning  missions  as  they 
have  not  read  before ;  and  as  the  people  read  their 
interest  will  increase,  and  with  an  increase  of  inter- 
est will  come  an  increase  of  prayer,  and  the  more 
they  pray,  the  more  they  will  give.  The  children  will 
catch  something  of  this  new  interest ;  the  Sabbath- 
school  will  feel  it ;  and  no  wonder  if,  in  future  years, 
others  come  forward  and  offer  themselves  to  the  same 
blessed  work,  tracing  their  convictions  of  duty  to 
impressions  made  in  childhood  by  that  pastor's  con- 
secration to  the  cause  of  missions." 

The  time  is  coming,  I  believe,  when  there  will  be 
a  special  demand  on  pastors ;  and  the  demand  will  be 
on  the  more  experienced  and  eminent  ministers, 
men  of  commanding  presence  and  eloquence,  skill- 
ful organizers,  and  conversant  with  ecclesiastical 
principles  and  usages.  When  churches  have  become 


266  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

very  numerous  in  heathen  lands,  the  visits  of  such 
men  to  the  missions  for  one,  two  or  more  years,  will 
be  needed,  to  assist  the  missionaries  by  their  coun- 
sels, and  to  assure  the  community  at  home  by  their 
reports.  And  the  usefulness  of  such  services  will  be 
ample  compensation  for  the  sacrifice  they  will  in- 
volve. 

I  close  with  a  few  general  remarks. 

The  pastoral  office  in  Christendom  is  differently 
related  to  foreign  missions,  from  what  it  was  in  the 
apostolic  age.  Then,  pastors  were  all  connected 
with  what  we  now  call  mission  churches ;  that  is, 
they  were  pastors  of  churches  gathered  among  the 
heathen  as  the  result  of  apostolic  missionary  labor. 
But  pastors,  in  this  countiy  and  in  Great  Britain, 
are  now  the  spiritual  leaders  of  the  evangelical 
churches,  which  have  assumed  the  responsibility  of 
sending  forth  and  supporting  Christian  missionaries. 
The  responsibility  of  these  Christian  pastors  is, 
therefore,  of  the  same  nature  with  that  of  the  mis- 
sionaries. It  is  the  common  responsibility  resting 
on  both  the  senders  and  the  sent.  All  are  acting 
under  the  same  commission,  in  obedience  to  the 
same  command,  in  view  of  the  same  promise,  and 
for  the  same  great  and  glorious  end ;  namely,  the 
proclamation  of  the  heaven-born  salvation  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  the  establishment  of  the  Redeemer's  reign,  in 
all  parts  of  the  world.     And  the  same  responsibility 


CLAIMS  ON  YOUNG  MINISTERS.  267 

rests  equally  upon  the  churches.  We  are  not  of 
those  who  look  upon  the  clergy  as  a  body  distinct 
and  separate  from  the  churches.  Nor  do  we  look 
upon  the  churches  as  principals  in  this  work  of  the 
world's  spiritual  illumination.  Pastors,  mission- 
aries, churches,  all  are  mere  agents,  mere  instru- 
ments of  the  Almighty  Redeemer,  and  together  form 
his  great  army  for  the  subjugation  of  our  rebellious 
race. 

But  my  present  concern  is  with  the  gospel  min- 
istry. To  me  it  is  a  self-evident  truth,  that  ministers 
at  home  are  as  much  bound  to  do  what  they  can,  in 
their  circumstances,  for  the  vigorous  extension  of 
Christ's  kingdom,  as  are  those  brother  ministers, 
whose  sense  of  personal  duty  calls  them  to  go  abroad. 
The  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  wherever  their  post  of 
duty,  stand  related  to  the  whole  work  on  the  broad 
scale  of  the  earth.  Foreign  missions  have,  there- 
fore, a  claim  upon  all  Christian  ministers,  according 
to  their  means  of  affording  aid.  Not  the  pastoral 
work  alone,  not  home  missions  alone,  not  foreign 
missions  alone,  but  laboring  to  make  the  gospel 
known  "  to  every  creature,"  at  home  and  abroad,  is 
our  proper  business  as  the  ministers  of  Christ. 

Every  minister  must  of  course  use  his  discretion 
in  determining  the  proportionate  attention  he  shall 
give  to  the  several  departments  of  his  calling ;  and 
there  will  be  no  harm,  on  the  whole,  should  there 


268  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

be  a  diversity  of  views  on  this  subject.  Only  let  the 
fact  be  admitted  of  a  common  responsibility  for  the 
world's  spiritual  illumination,  and,  looking  from 
that  stand-point,  we  shall  fall  into  no  material  error 
as  regards  our  personal  duty. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE   ROMISH  MISSIONS  AS  AN   OPPOSING  POWER. 

Leading  Object  of  the  Romish  Church.  —  The  Theme  for  Discussion. 
Romish  Missions  since  the  Reformation.  —  Had  the  Heathen  World 
all  to  themselves,  and  reported  Vast  Successes.  —  Their  Missions 
a  Failure-  —  The  Statement  not  weakened  by  Recent  Develop- 
ments.—  Principles  underlying  Protestant  and  Romish  Missions 
contrasted. —  Superiority  of  Protestant  Missions  as  a  Converting 
Power.  — Romish  Missions  nevertheless  formidable.  — Best  Manner 
of  working  Protestant  Missions  in  their  Presence.  —  Grounds  of 
Hope  for  the  Future. 

The  leading  object  of  the  Romish  Church  at  the 
present  day,  is  probably  the  conquest  of  England 
and  the  United  States.  To  a  secret,  cunning,  am- 
bitious, and  unscrupulous  society,  like  the  Jesuit 
order,  the  all  but  universal  suftVage  of  our  country, 
and  the  amount  of  popular  education  controlled  by 
that  suifrage,  must  be  specially  attractive.  They 
will  need  much  looking  after,  and  should  be  met 
with  every  proper  effort  to  fortify  the  Protestant 
community  against  them,  and  to  acquaint  the  Roman 
Catholic  people  with  the  knowledge  of  salvation 
through  Christ  alone. 

But  papal  missions  in  Protestant  Christendom, 
however  important  and  interesting,  come  not  within 
the  proper  range  of  this  work. 


270  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

My  theme  is  the  Romish  Missions  in  Heathen 
Lands,  as  opposed  to  Protestant  Missions.  I  shall 
not  question  their  propagating  power,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  their  acknowledged  zeal,  activity,  and  en- 
terprise. That  power  they  have  in  common  with 
Protestant  missionaries.  My  object  is  rather  to  show 
the  inherent  weakness  of  the  Romish  missions  to  the 
heathen,  as  compared  with  Protestant  missions,  in 
their  lack  of  a  transforming  power  upon  the  heart 
and  life  of  man,  converting  him  from  sin  to  holiness. 

I  shall  first  enumerate  the  principal  Romish  mis- 
sions to  the  heathen,  from  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion to  the  opening  of  the  present  century,  and 
shall  note  the  great  success  claimed  for  them,  and 
also  their  signal  failure  as  they  appeared  at  the 
opening  of  the  century.  I  propose  then  to  contrast 
the  principles  underlying  the  Protestant  and  Romish 
missions,  in  order  to  show  the  inefficiency  of  the 
latter  as  a  converting  agency.  Nevertheless  Rome 
being  a  formidable  antagonist  as  a  self-propagating 
body,  I  shall  briefly  illustrate  that  fact ;  and  then 
offer  some  practical  suggestions  as  to  the  best  man- 
ner of  working  Protestant  missions  in  the  presence 
of  those  from  the  Romish  Church.  The  extent  and 
variety  of  my  subject-matter  will  require  great  con- 
ciseness of  statement. 

I.  I  am  to  enumerate  the  principal  Romish  mis- 
sions to  the  heathen,  from  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion to  the  opening  of  the  present  century. 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  271 

The  most  remarkable  period  of  these  missions  was 
from  the  institution  of  the  order  of  Jesuits,  about 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  to  the  end  ol 
the  seventeenth.  The  foreign  missions  of  the  Rom- 
ish Church  were,  in  some  sense,  a  result  of  the  Ref- 
ormation. Their  leading  object  was  to  oppose  and 
counteract  the  Reformation.  In  this  period,  besides 
the  order  of  Jesuits,  there  were  founded  at  Rome, 
the  Congregation  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith, 
and  the  Seminary  for  the  Education  of  Missionaries, 
both  well  endowed,  which  still  exist.  Several  insti- 
tutions for  foreign  missions  were  also  formed  in 
France,  embodying  a  large  amount  of  enterprise. 
Speaking  of  those  institutions,  Mosheim  says : 
"  From  these  colleges  and  societies  issued  those 
swarms  of  missionaries,  who  travelled  over  much  of 
the  known  world,  and  from  among  the  most  ferocious 
nations  gathered  congregations  that  were,  if  not  in 
reality,  yet  in  name,  and  in  some  of  their  usages, 
Christians."  "  Among  these  missionaries,"  he  says, 
"  the  Jesuits,  Dominicans,  Franciscans,  and  Capu- 
chins, obtained  the  greater  glory.  Yet  they  mutually 
assailed  and  accused  each  other,  publicly,  of  disre- 
garding and  dishonoring  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  even 
of  corrupting  his  holy  doctrines.  The  Jesuits,  in  par- 
ticular, were  the  most  spoken  against,  by  the  others, 
who  labored  with  them  in  the  glorious  cause  of  en- 
larging the  Saviour's  empire,  and  by  the  great  body  of 
their  own  church."  ^     The  testimony  of  Mosheim  is 

1  Mosheim's  Hist,  vol.  iii.  p.  245. 


272  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

corraborated  by  other  testimony.  How  exceedingly 
corrupt  and  mischievous  the  Jesuits  were  as  casuists, 
is  set  forth  with  marvelous  wit  and  power,  by  Pas- 
chal in  his  "  Provincial  Letters,"  written  about  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  order  of  Jesuits  was  suppressed  by  Pope 
Clement  XIV.  in  1773,  two  hundred  and  thirty-three 
years  after  its  establishment.  This  was  done  in 
compliance  with  the  demands  of  the  papal  kingdoms, 
which  could  no  longer  endure  its  abuses.  Yet  the 
Jesuit  order  was  not  thereby  annihilated.  The  sup- 
pression involved  the  confiscation  of  their  immense 
possessions,  and  the  necessity  of  their  assuming  the 
citizen's  dress ;  yet  the  spirit  of  the  order  remained, 
and  probably  its  organization,  and  they  gradually 
attained  to  influential  employments  in  seminaries  for 
education,  in  governments,  and  in  the  church.  In 
1814,  after  Napoleon  had  abdicated  the  imperial 
throne,  and  when  the  nations  of  Europe  were  be- 
ginning to  rejoice  in  their  freedom,  Pius  VII.  re- 
constituted the  order. 

The  Jesuit  order  is  reported  now  to  contain  some- 
what over  eight  thousand  members;  which  is  a 
large  number  of  such  missionaries  to  be  scattered 
over  the  world.^  They  confess,  however,  to  a  much 
smaller  number.^ 

As  they  are  believed  to  constitute  the  chief  mis- 

1  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  March,  1868. 

2  See  Appendix  IX. 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  273 

sioiiary  power  of  the  Romish  Church,  and  have  been 
the  principal  means  of  the  revival  of  its  missions,  I 
must  say  somewhat  more  concerning  them. 

The  General  of  the  order  resides  at  Rome,  and  no 
Roman  emperor,  no  despot  of  any  age,  had  a  more 
absolute  sway.  Legislative,  judicial,  and  executive 
functions  all  are  vested  in  him.  He  is  to  every 
Jesuit  the  ruler  of  thought,  conscience,  and  volition, 
and  from  him  there  is  no  appeal.  Every  dignity 
and  emolument  is  at  his  disposal,  and  he  holds  his 
office  for  life. 

Ifc  is  difficult  to  ascertain  what  was  the  actual 
Roman  Catholic  missionary  force  in  the  heathen 
world,  at  any  one  period.  The  historian  of  the 
Dutch  missions  in  India  estimated  the  number  of 
Romish  missionaries  in  the  East,  in  the  year  1706, 
at  two  thousand.  Rome  gives  very  little  account  of 
her  proceedings  to  the  world,  or  even  to  her  own 
people.  Cardinal  Wiseman  says  "  the  Propaganda 
publishes  nothing."  "  No  appeal,"  he  adds,  "  is  ever 
made  by  it  to  the  public.  The  Congregation  meets 
privately,  and  although  persons  who  take  pains  may 
procure  information,  there  is  nothing  like  an  official 
document  put  forth,  to  bring  what  is  done  by  its 
missionaries  before  the  world."  ^  This  concealment 
has  ever  characterized  the  missions  of  the  Propa- 
ganda.2     The  Jesuits  have  had  a  somewhat  different 

1  Lectures,  1836,  p.  219. 
^  Venn's  Life  of  Xavier,  Preface  and  p.  267. 
18 


274  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

policy,  especially  as  regards  their  favorite  Xavier, 
but  it  is  not  easy  to  know  how  much  to  believe. 

There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  during  the 
sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  some  part  of  the  eight- 
eenth centuries,  the  Church  of  Rome  prosecuted 
missions  in  the  pagan  world  beyond  anything  yet 
witnessed  in  the  Protestant  Church.  Their  more  im- 
portant missions  I  will  now  enumerate. 

They  had  one  in  India  for  three  hundred  years, 
commencing  with  the  sixteenth  century.  They  had 
one  in  Japan  for  the  greater  part  of  a  hundred  years, 
commencing  with  1549.  They  had  one  in  China 
without  any  serious  obstruction,  for  one  hundred 
and  forty-four  years,  commencing  in  1579.  They 
had  one  in  Paraguay,  in  South  America,  for  one 
hundred  and  seventeen  years,  which  began  soon 
after  the  close  of  the  mission  in  Japan.  They  had 
one  in  South  Africa,  in  the  kingdom  of  Kongo,  for 
more  than  two  hundred  years,  until  about  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

These  great  fields  the  Romish  missionaries  had  all 
to  themselves.  They  had  the  sole  occupation  of  them 
during  the  space  of  from  one  to  three  centuries. 
Not  a  Protestant  came  near  them ;  excepting  a 
few  Danes  in  a  small  section  of  their  India  field, 
near  the  close  of  their  third  century.  Never  had 
missionaries  a  fairer  opportunity  to  Christianize 
whole  nations. 


,  ROMISH  MISSIONS.  275 

II.  They  reported  great  successes ;  though  my 
impression  of  their  magnitude  is  considerably  modi- 
fied, when  I  take  into  account  the  duration  and 
extent  of  the  several  missions.  In  Japan,  the  re- 
ligion they  proposed  was  adopted  by  great  numbers 
of  all  ranks  and  qualities.  In  China,  the  Tartar 
Emperor,  Kang-he,  was  educated  by  a  Jesuit,  and 
proclaimed  the  Christian  religion  (meaning  the 
Romish)  to  be  good  and  salutary,  and  that  all  his 
subjects  were  at  liberty  to  embrace  it ;  and  his  reign 
of  more  than  fifty  years  gave  the  Romish  mission- 
aries every  possible  advantage.  Their  Chinese  con- 
verts were  reckoned  by  hundreds  of  thousands.  In 
Paraguay,  the  Jesuits  estimated  their  baptized 
Indians  at  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand.  In 
Africa,  the  kingdom  of  Kongo,  according  to  the 
showing  of  the  missionaries  themselves,  was,  for 
more  than  two  centuries,  completely  under  the  in- 
fiuence  of  Rome ;  so  that  if  the  inhabitants  are  not 
all  in  civilization  and  Christianity,  that  a  pagan 
people  are  capable  of  being  made  under  the  training 
of  Romish  missions,  the  fault  was  their  own.  The 
facilities  they  there  enjoyed  were  such  as  Rome  can 
scarcely  ever  expect  to  have  again. ^  "  Nor  was  the 
papacy  established  in  Kongo,"  says  the  historian, 
"  in  a  hasty  or  superficial  manner.  It  was  a  work, 
at  which  successive  companies  of  missionaries  labored 
with  untiring  assiduity  for  two  centuries.     Among 

1  Wilson's  Western  Africa,  p.  134. 


276  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

these  were  some  of  the  most  learned  and  able  men 
that  Rome  ever  sent  forth  to  the  pagan  world.  It 
was  a  cause,  too,  that  always  lay  near  the  heart  of 
the  King  of  Portugal,  when  that  nation  was  at  the 
climax  of  its  power  and  wealth.  The  royal  sword 
was  ever  ready  to  be  unsheathed  for  its  defense,  and 
her  treasures  were  poured  out  without  stint  for  its 
support."  1 

III.  Yet  every  one  of  these  protracted  missions, 
as  they  appeared  at  the  opening  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, was  a  failure.2  And  I  do  not  know  how  it  can 
be  proved,  that  any  one  of  them  was  a  permanent 
blessing  to  the  nation  in  which  it  labored. 

The  Kongo  mission  perished  entirely  on  the  with- 
drawal of  Portuguese  protection,  and  "  left  the  un- 
fortunate inhabitants  of  that  country,"  as  the  his- 
torian declares,  "  in  as  deep  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion, and  perhaps  in  greater  poverty  and  degradation, 
than  they  would  have  been,  if  Roman  Catholicism 
had  never  been  proclaimed  among  them."  ^ 

After  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  from  Paraguay, 
in  1767,  "  the  greater  number  of  the  inhabitants  re- 
lapsed into  a  state  of  barbarism."  * 

As  regards  China,  Father  Ripa,  a  missionary  from 

1  Wilson,  p.  329. 

2  On  the  general  subject  of  the  failure  of  Romish  missions,  see 
Venn's  Life  ofXavier,  p.  262  and  onward. 

8  Wilson,  p.  329.  *  Venn,  p.  315. 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  277 

the  Propaganda,  residing  at  Peking,  and  writing  after 
the  Chinese  mission  ceased  to  exist  as  a  public  and 
tolerated  institution,  makes  the  remarkable  declara- 
tion, that  of  the  five  hundred  missionaries  sent  from 
Europe  to  China  during  the  hundred  and  forty  years 
of  the  mission,  none  of  them  so  mastered  the  lan- 
guage, as  to  be  able  to  preach  intelligibly  to  the 
people  at  large. ^  He  could  not  mean  to  say,  that 
some  of  them  were  not  skilled  in  the  written  lan- 
guage, but  that  they  were  not  able  to  preach  intelli- 
gibly in  the  common  spoken  language  of  the  people. 
We  credit,  therefore,  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Williams, 
in  his  history  of  the  Chinese  Empire.  "  It  is  prob- 
able," he  says,  "  that  there  may  have  been  true  con- 
verts among  the  myriads  of  adherents  to  Romanism ; 
but  what  salutary  effects  has  this  large  body  of 
Christians  wrought  in  the  vast  population  of  China, 
during  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  since  Ricci 
established  himself  at  Nanking?  None,  absolutely 
none,  that  attract  attention."  After  candidly  ad- 
mitting, that  "  many  of  their  converts  exhibited  the 
greatest  constancy  in  their  profession,  suffering  per- 
secution, torture,  imprisonment,  banishment,  and 
death,  rather  than  deny  their  faith,"  he  adds  :  "  but 
the  mass  of  Romish  converts  in  China  can  hardly  be 
considered  to  have  been  much  better  than  baptized 
pagans."  ^ 

The  Abbe  Dubois,  after  having  spent  twenty-five 

1  Venn,  p.  301.     Williams'  Middle  Kingdom,  4th  ed.,  vol.  ii.  p.  314. 

2  Williams'  Middle  Kingdom,  vol.  ii.  p.  324. 


278  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

years  in  Southern  India  as  a  Jesuit  missionary, 
affirms,  that  the  renowned  Francis  Xavier,  who  is 
now^  attaining  the  rank  of  a  patron  saint  to  Romish 
missions,  "  being  disheartened  by  the  invincible 
obstacles  he  everywhere  met  in  his  apostolic  career, 
and  by  the  apparent  impossibility  of  making  real 
converts,  left  India  in  disgust."  And  this  fully  ap- 
pears in  Xavier's  correspondence.^ 

The  course  pursued  by  the  Jesuits  in  their  Madura 
mission,  and  its  results,  should  not  be  suffered  to 
fade  from  public  recollection.  It  is  thus  described 
by  Dr.  Mullens,  in  his  excellent  work  on  "  Missions  in 
South  India,"  published  fourteen  years  since.  After 
stating  what  glowing  accounts  were  given  by  the 
Jesuits  of  their  success,  he  says :  "  Such  is  their 
own  account ;  but  there  is  evidence  of  the  clearest 
kind,  from  their  own  pens  and  from  papal  records, 
that  the  whole  plan  of  their  mission  was  a  lie ;  that 
it  began  in  lies  and  perjury,  and  was  so  maintained, 
and  by  lying  and  deception  was  utterly  ruined  in  the 
end."  This  language  is  severe,  but  no  more  so  than 
the  truth.  "  From  the  outset,"  Dr.  Mullens  says, 
"  Robert  de  Nobili  and  the  others  denied  with  oaths 
that  they  were  Europeans,  asserting  boldly  that  they 
were  real  Brahmins.  They  dressed,  bathed,  and  ate 
like  real  Brahmins,  wore  the  sacred  thread,  put  ashes 
on  their  breasts  and  foreheads,  wore  the  native 
wooden  shoes,  and  slept  upon  a  tiger's  skin.     Them- 

1  Venn,  p.  165  and  elsewhere. 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  279 

selves  assert  that  their  whole  attention  was  given 
to  concealing  the  fact  that  they  were  Europeans, 
since  they  augured  the  complete  destruction  of  the 
mission  from  its  discovery.  Yet  after  all  they  failed 
with  the  Brahmin  class,  which  it  was  their  special 
ohject  to  win."  Thousands  on  thousands  of  the 
Pariah  class  were  baptized,  but  these  Pariah  adher- 
ents were  never  elevated.  They  also  baptized,  by 
stealth,  thousands  of  dying  heathen  children.  In 
this  way  they  were  able  to  boast  of  immense  num- 
bers of  converts.  "  In  managing  their  converts, 
they  kept  up  the  same  system  of  deception  and  com- 
promise. They  allowed  them  the  same  cars  and 
idolatrous  processions  as  before,  the  Virgin  Mary 
taking  the  place  of  the  Hindu  god.  In  their  mar- 
riages, the  heathen  emblems,  the  heathen  rites  and 
customs  as  to  food,  were  all  kept  up  still.  In  their 
bathing,  they  still  repeated  the  same  formulas  as 
before,  uttering  the  name  of  some  god  as  they 
touched  each  successive  limb."  "  In  fact,"  he  adds, 
"  their  converts,  except  as  to  name,  were  exactly 
and  in  every  respect  the  same  heathen  Pariahs,  as 
they  were  before."  ^ 

The  Jesuit  mission  to  Abyssinia  should  be  men- 
tioned. It  was  commenced  about  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  its  object  was  to  bring  the 
country  under  the  dominion  of  the  Pope.     For  a 

1  Missions  in  South  India,  p.  134.  For  ample  illustrations,  see  Ccd' 
cutta  Review,  1844,  vol.  ii.  pp.  73-120. 


280  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

time  they  had  great  success.  In  1726,  the  emperor 
acknowledged  fealty  to  the  "  successor  of  St.  Peter." 
The  Jesuits  were  received  with  favor,  and  had  all 
possible  facilities  granted  them.  But  they  lost  all 
prudence.  The  liturgy  of  Rome  was  introduced. 
The  doctrine  of  Christ's  person,  as  held  by  that  peo- 
ple, was  made  an  offense  punishable  with  death,  and 
the  Inquisition  was  introduced  to  carry  out  this 
atrocious  enactment.  Five  consecutive  rebellions, 
wdth  fearful  bloodshed,  were  the  consequence.  The 
king  finally  relented,  and  in  1634  granted  liberty  of 
conscience ;  and  the  whole  Roman  structure  fell  in- 
stantly to  the  ground.  In  the  next  reign,  the  Jesuits 
were  banished,  and  when  more  came,  they  were  put 
to  death. ^ 

Iri  the  Philippine  Islands,  which  have  been  held 
by  the  Spaniards,  the  Romish  missionaries  have 
maintained  their  supremacy  for  about  three  cen- 
turies. But  the  papal  author  of  the  "  Voyage  of  the 
Novara  Frigate,"  sent  out  by  the  Austrian  govern- 
ment not  long  since  on  an  exploring  expedition, 
states,  that  "  little,  if  anything,  has  been  done  for  the 
prosperity  and  development  of  the  country,  or  for  the 
intellectual  and  moral  advancement  of  the  people ; " 
and  that  "  there,  apparently,  as  in  the  other  earlier 
dependencies  of  Spain,  the  Roman  Catholic  ritual 
has  become  mingled,  in  the  most  extraordinary  man- 
ner, with  ceremonies  borrowed  from  paganism."  ^ 

1  Venn's  Life  ofXavier,  p.  312. 

2  Venn,  p.  316. 


ROMISH  MISSIONS,  281 

I  hope  the  reader  is  not  wearied  by  this  statement 
of  the  efforts  of  the  Romish  Church  to  secure  a  foot- 
ing in  the  heathen  world,  and  of  their  failure  to 
exert  a  transforming  religious  influence  upon  the 
benighted  nations. 

The  force  of  this  statement  will  not  be  materially 
affected,  should  the  dying  out  of  the  Romish  mis- 
sions be  mainly  attributed  by  Romish  authors  to  the 
suppression  of  the  Jesuit  order,  nearly  a  hundred 
years  since,  and  to  the  paralyzing  influence  of  the 
revolutions  and  wars  on  continental  Europe.  If  a 
mission,  after  the  lapse  of  a  century,  with  all  the 
facilities  they  enjoyed,  cannot  retain  its  conquests 
without  keeping  an  army  in  the  field,  it  is  a  failure. 
And  thus  it  was  with  the  Romish  missions.  No 
radical  and  permanent  change  has  been  effected  in 
the  religious  sentiments  and  habits  of  the  people 
among  whom  they  had  so  long  labored.  Foreign 
bishops  and  priests  were  —  and  they  are  to  this  day 
—  an  essential  condition  of  prosperity  to  the  native 
papal  communities. 

Nor  would  the  case  be  materially  altered,  should 
it  appear,  that  some  thousands  and  even  many  thou- 
sands of  adherents  to  the  Papal  Church  have  secretly 
retained  their  allegiance  to  the  Pope,  both  in  China 
and  Japan,  since  the  missions  were  forcibly  sup- 
pressed, and  are  now  declaring  themselves,  upon  an 
assurance  of  safety  under  French  protection.  For 
it  has  long  been  more  than  surmised,  that  Romish 


282  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

missionaries  continued  to  enter  China,  after  the  sup- 
pression of  the  missions,  under  disguises  such  as 
Protestant  missionaries  would  not  deem  allowable ; 
and  the  same  may  yet  prove  to  be  true  in  Japan.  I 
do  not  deny  the  sincere  and  eminent  devotion  of  the 
Romish  missionary  to  his  church,  and  of  the  Jesuit 
to  his  order,  nor  their  activity  and  enterprise.  Self- 
righteousness  may  labor  and  suffer  as  remarkably, 
perhaps,  as  the  religion  of  the  cross.  In  ancient 
times,  we  know,  it  "  compassed  sea  and  land  to  make 
one  proselyte,"  even  though  the  proselyte  became  (if 
I  may  use  the  emphatic  language  of  our  Lord)  "  two- 
fold more  the  child  of  hell."^  Pharisee,  Stylite, 
Jesuit,  Fakir,  we  see  in  each  the  power  of  the  self- 
righteous  principle,  and  we  admit  it.  But  on  this 
singular  phenomenon  in  our  human  nature,  I  need 
not  enlarge. 

The  question  before  us  is  one  of  great  interest. 
We  are  to  remember,  that  the  Romish  Church  and 
its  missions  are  substantially  the  same  to-day,  in 
their  nature  and  objects,  and  the  means  they  em- 
ploy, as  they  were  two  or  three  hundred  years  ago. 
The  Jesuits  may  have  learned  more  prudence,  but 
they  are  the  same. 

IV.  I  am  now  to  illustrate  the  inefficiency  of  the 
Romish  missions  as  a  converting  agency,  and  this  I 

1  Matt,  xxiii.  15. 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  283 

do  by  contrasting  the  principles  underlying  the  Prot- 
estant and  Romish  missions. 

1.  It  is  a  settled  principle,  in  Protestant  missions 
of  the  present  day,  not  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  civil 
government,  except  merely  for  personal  protection 
where  they  have  a  legal  right  to  be  and  to  labor. 
Whereas  the  Romish  missions,  from  the  Pope  and 
Francis  Xavier  down,  have  advanced  their  interests 
by  every  possible  use  of  the  civil  arm.  Even  since 
the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  there  is 
said  to  have  been  no  less  than  fifteen  interventions 
of  the  French  army  in  Italy,  at  the  instigation  of 
the  Pope ;  and  since  the  year  734,  there  have  been 
forty-one  such  interventions  at  his  call.^  This  re- 
liance on  the  secular  power  is  inherent  in  the 
Romish  Church,  and  was  one  of  Xavier's  most  mis- 
chievous practical  errors.  In  Africa,  so  heavily  did 
the  Romish  mission  lean  upon  the  king  of  Portugal, 
that  the  Kongo  mission  declined  with  the  decline  of 
Portuguese  power.^  In  China,  they  so  leaned  upon 
the  Emperor  Kang-he,  that  their  overthrow,  so  fai 
as  their  tolerated  existence  in  the  empire  was  con- 
cerned, followed  speedily  on  his  decease.^  Their  sub- 
sequent hold,  until  the  late  treaties  with  France,  as 
already  intimated,  has  been  through  a  concealed  oper- 
ation, that  would  not  be  deemed  allowable  by  Prot- 
estant missionaries.     The  destruction  of  the  Japan- 

1  See  this  illustrated  in  Venn's  Life  of  Francis  Xavier,  pp.  277-316. 
«  Wilson,  p.  346.  »  Venn,  p,  306. 


284  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

ese  mission  was  owing,  as  its  immediate  cause,  to 
the  discovery  of  a  political  intrigue  traceable  to  the 
missionaries.^  In  Paraguay,  the  fruits  of  the  Jesuit 
mission  perished  as  soon  as  the  Spaniards  had  over- 
thrown their  army  of  converts.  And  the  reader  will 
remember  how  it  was  in  Abyssinia.^ 

2.  The  Holy  Scriptures  lie  at  the  foundation  of 
every  Protestant  mission.  But,  whatever  Romanists 
may  say  as  to  their  Scripture  translations  in  former 
ages,  the  Inspired  Word  has  not  been,  and  is  not 
now,  a  recognized  agency  in  their  missions.  While 
they  freely  expended  money  in  erecting  churches, 
colleges,  and  convents  in  India,  they  made  no  ver- 
sions of  the  Scriptures  in  any  of  the  vernacular 
languages.^  Let  any  one  read  the  lectures  of  Car- 
dinal Wiseman  on  the  Catholic  Church,  or  almost 
any  Romish  accounts  of  Protestant  missions,  and  he 
will  have  no  doubt  that  papal  missions  are  designed 

1  Venn,  pp.  210,  300. 

2  "  The  Jesuits,"  says  Dr.  Geddes,  in  his  Church  History  of  Ethiopia, 
"  were  all  to  a  man  of  the  same  opinion  with  that  great  apostle  of  the 
Indies,  Francis  Xavier,  whose  maxim,  as  Ravaretta  informs  us,  was, 
that  missionaries  without  muskets  do  never  make  converts  to  any  pur- 
pose. The  truth  of  which  maxim  John  Bolunte,  a  missionary  Jesuit, 
tells  us  is  confirmed  by  universal  experience ;  for  neither  in  the  Bra- 
zils, Peru,  Mexico,  Florida,  the  Philippines,  or  Molucca,  have  any  con- 
versions been  made  without  the  help  of  the  secular  power."  —  Quoted 
in  Venn's  Life  of  Xavier,  p.  528.  Dr.  Geddes  was  for  many  years  Brit- 
ish Chaplain  at  Lisbon,  and  there  studied  the  Portuguese  history  of 
missions. 

8  Dr.  Allen's  Indian  p.  559. 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  285 

to  be  prosecuted  with  the  least  possible  use  of  the 
Inspired  Volume.^ 

3.  The  Protestant  missions  make  great  use  of 
preaching,  and  of  course  expect  every  missionary  to 
be  able  to  proclaim  the  gospel  in  the  language  of  the 
people.  But  the  Eomish  missions,  as  a  general 
thing,  can  scarcely  be  said  to  do  either.  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  I  am  speaking  only  of  their 
missions  among  the  heathen.  If  there  are  now 
what  may  seem  to  be  exceptions  to  this,  it  is  because 
of  their  immediate  proximity  to  Protestant  mission- 
aries. I  have  already  adduced  testimony  of  the  in- 
competency of  the  former  papal  missionaries  to 
preach  intelligibly  to  the  Chinese  people.  Father 
Kipa  also  affirms,  that  they  made  no  attempt  to  in- 
troduce an  educated  native  ministry,  and  that  his 
own  efforts  in  that  direction  at  Peking,  led  only  to 
scandal  and  discord .^ 

Dr.  Wilson  says,  that  but  few  of  the  missionaries 

1  See  Marshall's  Christian  Missions,  their  Agents  and  Results,  vol.  i. 
pp.  1-.59.  The  opposition  of  the  Romish  Church  to  allowing  the  use 
of  the  Scriptures  by  the  people,  is  very  ably  set  forth  by  Dr.  William 
Barrows,  in  the  Bihliotheca  Sacra  and  Biblical  Repositoiy  for  1860,  vol. 
xvii.  pp.  323-355,  Cardinal  Wiseman,  in  his  tract  entitled  The  Catho- 
lic Doctrine  on  the  Use  of  the  Bible,  affirms  of  the  principles  held  on  this 
subject  by  Romanists  and  Protestants :  "  They  are  antagonistic,  and 
we  glory  in  avowing  it."  He  says  :  "  We  answer,  therefore,  boldly, 
that  we  give  not  the  word  of  God  indiscriminately  to  all,  because  God 
himself  has  not  so  given  it.  We  further  say,  that  we  do  not  permit 
the  indiscriminate  and  undirected  use  of  the  Bible,  because  God  has 
not  given  to  his  church  the  instinct  to  do  so." 
2  Venn,  p.  301. 


286  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

in  the  African  kingdom  of  Kongo  made  themselves 
acquainted  with  the  language  of  the  people.  Even 
Francis  Xavier,  the  most  noted  of  the  Romish  mis- 
sionaries, was  never  able  to  preach  to  the  people  in 
the  East  except  through  interpreters,  and  these 
often  very  imperfect.  "  Conceive,"  said  he,  in  writ- 
ing at  one  time  to  a  friend,  "  what  kind  of  sermons 
I  am  able  to  preach,  when  they  who  should  repeat 
my  address  to  the  people,  do  not  understand  me,  nor 
I  them."  1 

4.  Protestant  missions  are  making  more  and  more 
use  of  an  educated  native  ministry ;  and,  in  the  prog- 
ress of  experience,  they  are,  to  a  certain  extent, 
acting  on  the  conviction,  that  native  pastors  are 
essential  to  the  full  development  of  native  churches, 
and  this  conviction  will  be  sure  to  gain  ground  here- 
after in  the  evangelical  missions.  Whereas,  a  the- 
ologically educated  native  ministry,  in  our  sense  of 
the  phrase,  is  not  an  element  in  the  Eomish  mis- 

1  Venn,  p.  37  ;  also,  pp.  197,  208,  258.  Pope  Gregory  VII.  thus 
states  the  sentiment  of  the  Romish  Church  in  favor  of  conducting  its 
worship,  as  far  as  possible,  in  an  unknown  tongue.  "  In  our  frequent 
meditations  upon  the  Holy  Scriptures,"  he  says,  "  we  have  discovered, 
that  it  has  been  and  still  is  pleasing  to  Almighty  God,  that  his  sacred 
worship  should  be  performed  in  an  unknown  language,  in  order  that 
the  whole  world,  and  especially  the  most  simple,  may  not  be  able  to 
understand  it.  In  a  known  language,  the  service  would  soon  excite 
contempt  and  disgust,  or  it  would  happen  that  the  common  people,  by 
repeating  so  often  that  which  they  could  not  comprehend,  would  fall 
into  many  great  errors,  from  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  withdraw 
the  heart  of  man."  —  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  1860,  p.  352. 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  287 

sions ;  and  of  the  native  pastorate,  educated  on  the 
ground,  they  know  nothing.^ 

5.  The  local,  self-governed  church,  is  an  indispen- 
sable element  in  Protestant  missions.  But  the  Rom- 
ish missions  have  nothing  of  the  kind.  They  have 
no  local,  self-governed  churches.  The  Romish 
Church  claims  to  be  itself  one  and  indivisible ;  but 
its  unity,  so  far  as  it  is  real,  is  a  terrible  reality.  It 
is  a  vast  ecclesiastical  despotism,  numbering  only 
those  among  its  members,  vrho  submit  implicitly  to* 
its  authority.  This  is  a  chief  reason  of  the  well- 
known  perpetual  pupilage  of  the  Romish  missions, 
and  of  their  decline  as  soon  as  their  missionaries  are 
withdrawn.  Then  there  cannot  but  be  everywhere  a 
paralyzing  influence  in  the  generally  prevailing  be- 
lief in  the  dogma  of  baptismal  regeneration,  as  being 
the  onlj  thing  requisite  to  make  a  lieathen  a  mem- 
ber of  the  church  of  Christ.  The  practice  of  bap- 
tizing dying  children  of  heathens,  would  seem  to  be 
scarcely  less  prevalent  in  the  Romish  missions  now, 
than  it  was  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  "  Annals 
of  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,"  published  by 
authority,  contained,  only  a  few  years  since,  the 
following  statement  by  an  apostolic  vicar  in  one  of 
the  China  missions.  "  The  mission,"  he  says,  "  con- 
tinues its  work  of  baptizing  children  in  danger  of 
death,  and  the  Lord   continues  to  bless  it.     Each 

1 1  am  aware  that  they  now  report  some  hundreds  of  native  priests 
and  divinity  students  in  China.     Nevertheless,  I  leave  the  text  as  it  is. 


288  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

year  the  number  of  those  whom  they  regenerate, 
goes  on  increasing.  In  1839,  it  was  12,483 ;  in 
1840,  15,766 ;  in  1841,  17,825 ;  in  1842,  20,068 ;  in 
1843,  22,292  ;  and  in  1844,  24,381."  Native  Chris- 
tians of  both  sexes  were  employed  and  paid  to  seek 
out  and  baptize  dying  infants.  The  poor  heathen 
parents  willingly  allowed  these  agents  to  spill  drops 
of  water  on  the  forehead,  declaring  it  to  be  good  for 
the  child,  pronouncing,  at  the  same  time,  the  sacra- 
mental words.  This  was  their  baptism.  According 
to  the  statistics  (which  bear  evident  marks  of  no 
small  exaggeration),  more  than  one  hundred  and* 
twelve  thousand  infants  were  thus  "  regenerated " 
(to  use  their  term)  in  this  one  mission,  and  "  pre- 
pared for  heaven,"  as  they  would  say,  in  the  space 
of  six  years.^  Dr.  Wilson,  in  his  history  of  the 
Kongo  mission,  illustrates  the  same  usage.  "  Father 
Garli  states,"  he  says,  "  that  in  two  years  he  bap- 
tized 2,700  children.  Another  missionary  is  re- 
ported to  have  baptized  5,000  children  in  a  few  days. 
Another  baptized  12,000  in  less  than  a  year.  Father 
MeroUa  claims,  in  less  than  five  years  to  have  bap- 
tized more  than  13,000,  and  he  mentions  the  case  of 
a  brother  missionary,  who  baptized  50,000,  and  of 
another,  who,  in  twenty  years,  baptized  more  than 
100,000."  2  Even  Xavier  was  in  the  full  belief  of 
this  doctrine,  and  claimed  to  have  baptized  a  thou- 
sand infants  in  Ceylon,  who  died  (as  he  says)  before 

1  Venn,  p.  42.  2  Wilson's  West  Africa,  p.  337. 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  289 

they  could  commit  sin,  and  consequently  (as  he  be- 
lieved) had  gone  to  heaven  to  intercede  on  his 
behalf.  He  regarded  baptismal  innocence  as  ex- 
tending to  the  age  of  fourteen.^ 

6.  Protestant  missions  have  in  them  the  spiritual 
life  and  power  contained  in  the  doctrines  of  regen- 
eration by  the  Holy  Spirit,  justification  by  faith,  and 
sanctification  through  the  truth.  Instead  of  which, 
the  Romish  missions  have  the  doctrine  of  baptismal 
regeneration,  which  they  regard  as  a  saving  ordi- 
nance, and  they  require  of  the  baptized  adult  only 
an  outward  profession,  without  insisting  on  a  change 
of  heart,  and  often  scarcely  a  reformation  of  life.^ 

Once  more,  — 

7.  The  Romanists  are  justly  accused  of  compro- 
mising with  paganism  in  their  modes  of  worship; 
and  no  earnest  objection  was  made  to  this  in  the 
high  places  of  the  Romish  Church,  until  the  Jesuits 
in  India  had  well  nigh  substituted  paganism  for 
Christianity.  But  such  an  accusation  against  a  Prot- 
estant mission,  if  sustained,  would  at  once  deprive 
it  of  the  confidence  and  support  of  the  churches. 

I  think  I  have  said  enough  to  illustrate  the  im- 
mense superiority  of  the  Protestant  missions  over 
those  of  the  Romish  Church,  in  their  power  to  exert 
an  influence  on  the  heart  and  life  of  the  pagan 
world.     Whatever   amount  of  true   doctrine  there 

1  Venn,  p.  156.         *  Dr.  Medhurst,  as  quoted  by  Dr.  Venn,  p.  308. 
19 


290  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

may  be  in  the  creeds  of  the  Romish  Church,  for  all 
the  purposes  of  our  present  discussion  it  is  a  re- 
ligion of  forms,  and  rites,  and  ceremonies,  which 
easily  assimilate  to  the  religious  formalism  of  pagan 
nations.  Such  is  the  concurrent  testimony  of  Prot- 
estant missionaries.  The  Romish  missions  with- 
hold the  Bible.  Their  school  teaching  rouses  not, 
nor  is  it  intended  to  arouse,  the  intellectual  and 
moral  powers.  A  select  few  are  educated  to  govern, 
but  the  great  masses  are  educated  to  obey ;  and  we 
see  what  is  the  education  for  the  masses,  in  the 
seventeen  millions  out  of  twenty-five  in  Italy,  and 
the  nine  tenths  of  the  population  in  Spain,  who  can 
neither  read  or  write.  Romish  missionaries  (at  least 
those  remote  from  Protestant  missions)  seldom 
preach ;  and  are  believed  rarely  to  inculcate  the 
doctrine  of  atonement  through  the  blood  of  Christ 
alone,  or  sanctification  through  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and 
the  preparation  they  would  make  for  death  and  the 
judgment,  is  by  means  of  baptismal  regeneration, 
aided  by  lifeless  ceremonies,  and  priestly  absolutions. 
Surely  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  did  not  promise  his 
presence,  nor  the  gift  of  his  Spirit,  to  such  missions 
as  these. 

V.  Neverthless,  Rome  is  a  formidable  opponent, 
and  this  I  must  briefly  illustrate.  Its  numerical 
force  cannot  be  less  now,  than  it  was  in  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries,  and  its  intellectual 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  291 

and  pecuniary  resources  must  be  greater.  It  shares 
also  with  Protestants  in  whatever  advantage  results 
from  the  immense  increase  of  facilities  afforded  by 
the  progress  of  civilization. 

Moreover,  the  Propaganda  spirit  of  the  Romish 
Church  is  reviving  once  more.  The  Society  for  Mis- 
sions at  Lyons  acknowledges  the  annual  receipt  from 
the  faithful  of  more  than  a  million  of  dollars.  Sev- 
eral of  the  old  missions  have  been  revived,  and  Rom- 
ish missionaries  are  now  widely  scattered  in  heathen 
lands.  The  Reformation  awoke  the  Papal  Church  to 
those  vast  missionary  efforts  we  have  just  now  passed 
in  review ;  and  the  missionary  spirit  and  effort  now 
in  the  Protestant  churches  are  rousing  the  Romish 
Church  to  a  second  grand  effort,  and  will  doubtless, 
for  some  time  to  come,  exert  that  influence  more  and 
more.  Romish  missionaries  will  eveiywhere  be  our 
uncompromising  antagonists.  I  am  far  from  think- 
ing, however,  that  this  will  be  an  unmitigated  evil. 
Our  Protestant  churches  and  missions  need  to  have 
a  watchful  and  determined  foe  in  the  field.  Our 
missionaries  will  be  more  wakeful  and  active  for 
having  the  Roman  legions  encamped  in  their  vicin- 
ity, always  ready  for  an  assault.  It  has  seemed  to 
me,  from  observing  the  working  of  the  two  systems 
at  the  Sandwich  Islands,  that  the  Romish  missions, 
taking  human  nature  as  it  is,  have  been  hitherto  an 
advantage  to  the  cause  there,  on  the  whole.^ 

1 1  should  not  make  this  remark  concerning  the  "  Reformed  Catho- 
lic Mission  "  at  those  Islands. 


292  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

Again,  subservient  as  the  Romish  missionaries  are 
to  the  civil  power,  making  use  of  it  whenever  they 
can,  and  paying  back  in  the  same  coin,  we  must  ex- 
pect the  Catholic  governments,  and  especially  Catho- 
lic France,  to  aid  them  wherever  it  has  ambitious 
ends  to  accomplish ;  as  it  appears  to  have  in  China, 
Corea,  Japan,  Madagascar,  Northern  Africa,  and  the 
Isles  of  the  Pacific,  not  to  speak  of  Turkey  and 
Italy. 

VI.  I  now  oflPer  some  practical  suggestions,  though 
with  diffidence,  as  to  the  best  manner  of  working 
Protestant  missions  among  the  heathen,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  missions  from  the  Romish  Church. 

1.  Not  by  using  their  weapons.  If  we  do,  we 
shall  be  beaten  in  the  use  of  them.  A  good  while 
since,  missionaries  at  Constantinople  wrote  that  the 
Jesuits  had  attractive  schools,  teaching  the  modern 
languages,  the  fine  arts,  and  the  accomplishments ; 
and  that  they  would  be  likely  to  draw  away  the  best 
youth,  if  the  Protestant  missionaries  had  no  such 
schools.  The  reply  was,  that  Protestants  cannot  go 
into  that  line  of  operation.  Such  schools  are  the 
forte  of  the  Jesuits,  and,  do  what  we  may,  they 
would  outdo  us  in  that  direction.  A  similar  appeal 
was  also  made  in  the  matter  of  church  edifices.  The 
reply  was  of  the  same  import:  if  we  undertake  to 
compete  in  those  things,  we  shall  be  beaten.  We 
should  not  attempt  it,  either  abroad,  or  at  home. 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  293 

Many  persons  seem  to  think  that  Romanists  have 
the  advantage  of  Protestants  among  the  heathen, 
by  a  show  and  witchery  in  their  forms  of  worship. 
It  may  be  so,  after  heathen  men  or  women  have 
once  been  brought  fully  under  the  drill  of  their  cere- 
monies. But  I  have  seen  nothing,  in  my  visits  to 
the  missions,  and  learned  nothing  from  my  pro- 
tracted and  extended  correspondence,  to  awaken  a 
suspicion,  that  the  simplicity  of  our  worship  is  not 
far  better  for  us,  than  all  or  any  part  of  their 
parade  and  show  would  be;  it  being  our  peculiar 
object  to  make  real,  spiritual  converts. 

2.  We  should  do  just  what  the  Romish  missions 
do  not  do,  and  what  they  will  not  do.  They  will  do 
nothing,  intentionally,  to  rouse  the  intellect,  and  the 
moral  sense,  nothing  to  create  a  thinking,  inquiring, 
reasoning  habit  of  mind  among  their  pupils  and  the 
people  at  large.  We  have  everything  to  hope  from 
this  negative  habit  of  theirs ;  and  our  grand  aim 
should  be  to  impart  to  our  people  a  mental,  moral. 
Christian  discipline,  such  as  results  from  doctrinal, 
practical,  and  experimental  preaching,  in  plain,  in- 
telligent language.  Mere  conversation,  even  elo- 
quent conversation,  is  not  preaching,  nor  a  substi- 
tute for  it.  Plain,  direct  gospel  preaching  is  better 
for  us  than  all  the  pretentious  education  and  church 
edifices  of  the  Jesuits  would  be.  In  fact,  costly 
church  buildings  are  a  great  drawback  and  hin- 
drance in  evangelical  missions  among  the  heathen. 


294  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

It  is  so  even  in  the  Oriental  churches.  The  fewer 
costly  edifices  we  erect  and  have  in  missions  to  the 
unevangelized,  the  better.  The  world  is  not  to  he 
conquered  or  held  by  splendid  church  buildings,  nor 
by  a  gorgeous  ceremonial,  but  by  the  plain,  simple 
preaching  of  Christ  crucified,  and  by  a  worship 
which  recognizes  God  as  a  Spirit,  to  be  worshipped 
in  spirit  and  in  truth. 

We  should  give  the  people  the  Scriptures,  and 
organize  our  converts  into  churches  —  native 
throughout,  self-governed,  self-supported,  self-prop- 
agating ;  with  such  a  confederation  of  churches,  in 
due  time,  as  tbeir  multiplication  and  their  advance 
in  Christian  civilization  shall  demand. 

All  this  will  be  doing  just  what  the  Romish  mis- 
sions never  do,  and  what  they  never  will  do.  It  is 
a  method  of  operating,  that  differs  radically  from 
theirs.  It  is  the  apostolic  method,  and  will  have  the 
divine  blessing. 

3.  The  Romish  missions  being  so  diverse  from 
our  own,  both  in  their  object  and  methods,  our  wise 
course  is,  to  proceed  in  their  presence  very  much  as 
we  should  do  if  they  were  not  in  the  field.  How 
wonderfully,  one  would  think,  does  their  religion 
meet  the  spirit  and  aspirations  of  the  world,  —  by  its 
baptismal  regeneration,  its  confessions  and  absolu- 
tions, its  opus  operatum,  its  priesthood,  its  easy  con- 
formity to  the  world,  its  saintly  intercessors,  and  its 
queen  of  heaven.     It  being  a  grand  compromise,  it 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  295 

would  seem  that  its  missions,  viewed  apart  from  the 
teachings  of  their  history,  would  carry  all  before 
them.  But  they  do  not,  even  where  no  evangelical 
missions  are  in  the  field  to  oppose  them.  And  where 
the  gospel  is  present,  with  the  appeal  to  the  con- 
science made  by  its  doctrines  of  sin,  ruin,  and  re- 
demption, we  may  expect  these  weapons  of  the 
Spirit  to  exert  a  converting  influence  on  as  many  as 
are  "  ordained  to  eternal  life."  Therefore  we  should 
not  anywhere  be  greatly  disquieted  by  the  presence 
of  Romish  missions.  In  China,  we  might  treat  them 
as  a  sect  of  Buddhists,  in  India,  as  we  do  the  fol- 
lowers of  Brahma,  and  in  Western  Asia,  as  we  do 
the  followers  of  Mohammed. 

4.  The  strong  feeling  of  many,  that  native  pas- 
tors, if  left  alone  among  heathen,  even  after  proper 
training,  will  be  unable  to  withstand  the  Romish 
missionaries,  is  not  sustained  by  facts.  I  have  here- 
tofore stated  how  it  was  at  Tahiti,  for  more  than  a 
score  of  years.  And  how  nobly  did  native  converts 
and  pastors  stand  for  a  longer  time,  amid  the  ter- 
rible persecutions  in  Madagascar ;  and  what  a  rec- 
ord have  we  of  the  firmness  of  Christian  converts 
in  the  face  of  the  India  rebellion. 

Let  us,  then,  repose  confidence  in  native  churches 
and  pastors,  or  rather  in  the  grace  of  God  to  be 
manifested  in  their  support,  even  under  the  trial 
of  Jesuit  casuistry  and  art. 

5.  Let  us  keep  in  mind  the  two  grand  peculiari- 


296  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

ties  of  Protestant  missions,  namely:  (1)  That  our 
object  is  the  conversion  and  regeneration  of  sinners, 
their  holiness  in  heart  and  life;  and  (2)  That  our 
hope  of  effecting  this  is  through  the  gospel  and  the 
agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  these  is  our  strength ; 
and  the  want  of  these  is  the  weakness  of  our  adver- 
saries. Even  the  earlier  Jesuits,  whatever  may  he 
truthfully  said  of  the  purity  of  their  characters,  of 
their  sincerity,  and  their  earnest  desire  for  the  sal- 
vation of  souls,  did  not  proclaim  the  Scriptural 
method  of  salvation.  They  were  opposed  to  the 
true  doctrine,  sincerely,  heartily  so,  as  the  grand 
heresy  of  the  Reformation.  They  were,  therefore, 
blind  leaders  of  the  blind.  A  regard  for  historical 
truth  obliges  me  to  say  this  even  of  Francis  Xavier, 
notwithstanding  his  deserved  reputation  for  personal 
piety  in  a  dark  age,  and  his  marvelous  zeal  and  en- 
terprise in  extending  what  seemed  to  him  the  king- 
dom of  Christ.^ 

1  "  It  is  melancholy  to  find  throughout  Xavier's  writings,  amidst 
many  noble  religious  sentiments,  little  which  tends  to  exalt  Christ,  or 
to  honor  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Virgin  Mary  and  the 
saints  are  obtruded  into  an  idolatrous  position.  The  religion  which 
he  attempted  to  propagate,  was  not  according  to  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
He  has  left  on  record  his  Manual  of  Instruction,  and  it  proves  to  be  a 
mixture  of  legends  with  the  truth  of  God.  Hence  the  elements  of  a 
great  character  were  dwarfed  and  crippled  by  inferior  motives,  and 
anti-Christian  principles.  Great  natural  endowments  and  precious 
opportunities  were  wasted  in  the  vain  attempts  to  extend  the  kingdom 
of  Christ  by  unauthorized  expedients,  and  by  '  will- worship.'  Hence 
the  contradiction  between  Xavier's  natural  force  of  character  and  his 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  297 

VII.  I  close  this  chapter  with  a  few  hints  at  some 
of  our  grounds  for  encouragement.  We  have  a 
vast  advantage  over  the  Romish  Church,  in  not 
being  obliged  to  keep  an  army  in  the  field  in  order 
to  hold  it,  when  once  the  field  has  been  conquered. 
History  amply  proves  that  this  necessity  exists  in 
the  Romish  missions.  With  us  there  should  be  no 
hesitation,  after  liberating  from  their  thralldom  the 
slaves  of  sin,  in  clothing  them  with  responsibilities. 
The  more  free  they  are,  and  the  more  able  and  dis- 
posed they  are  to  think,  feel,  and  act  for  themselves, 
the  better  for  us ;  but  it  is  not  so  with  the  papal 
missions.  I  fully  believe  that  the  Protestant 
churches  are  able  to  effect  the  conquest  of  the 
heathen  world  against  all  the  opposing  force  of  Ro- 
manism, if  they  will  put  forth  determined  efforts, 
with  a  due  reliance  on  Him,  who  has  graciously 
promised  his  presence.  Rome,  with  all  her  numer- 
ical strength,  and  with  all  her  wealth,  will  be  no 
match  for  the  Protestant  churches,  when  the  lat- 
ter are  fully  aroused  to  the  use  of  their  spiritual 
weapons. 

There  is  more  of  active,  reliable  piety  in  the  Prot- 
estant Christian  Church  now,  than  there  ever  was. 
But  then,  as  we  have  already  seen,  it  is  yet  but  par- 
spiritual  inefficiency  ;  between  the  expectation  which  would  be  formed 
of  his  success  in  any  secular  pursuit,  and  his  utter  failure  in  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise."  —  Venn's  Life  of  Xavier,  p.  259.  Valuable  ex- 
tracts  from  this  Life  of  Xavier  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 


298  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

tially  enlisted  in  the  work  of  missions.  Therefore  it 
would  seem  that,  until  the  arrival  of  the  hlessed  day 
when  the  Spirit  shall  he  poured  more  abundantly 
upon  our  churches,  Romanism,  in  some  of  its  forms, 
will  divide  the  heathen  world  with  the  evangelical 
religion.  And  how  small  the  change  required  of  a 
Buddhist  to  be  accepted  as  a  true  son  of  the  Romish 
Church ;  how  small  in  a  Brahminist ;  how  small  in 
the  wild  African,  and  in  the  American  Indian. 

It  would  be  presumptuous  to  predict  what  the 
future  will  be  in  the  struggle  of  the  Evangelical 
Church  for  the  conquest  of  the  heathen  world,  ex- 
cept as  regards  the  grand  result.  Much  must  de- 
pend on  the  course  of  political  events  in  Christen- 
dom, but  inconceivably  more  on  the  vigor,  wisdom, 
and  piety  with  which  the  Evangelical  Church  shall 
prosecute  the  missions.  Portugal,  once  the  grand 
patron  of  Romish  missions,  has  now  scarcely  a  name 
and  a  place  in  the  world.  Spain  is  in  the  process  of 
what  may  prove,  in  the  end,  an  anti-papal  revolu- 
tion. Hungary  stands  once  more,  apparently,  on 
the  verge  of  a  Protestant  reformation ;  and  Austria 
is  no  longer,  as  heretofore,  the  obedient  son  of  the 
Romish  Church.  The  main  dependence  of  the  papal 
missions  is  now  upon  France ;  not  so  much  because 
of  a  spirit  of  subserviency  in  that  empire,  as  for  the 
promotion  of  its  own  ambitious  ends.  What  France 
stands  ready  to  do,  we  see  exemplified  at  Tahiti  and 
the  Loyalty  Islands  of  the  South  Sea,  and  at  the 


ROMISH  MISSIONS.  299 

Sandwich  Islands.  We  see  it  exemplified  in  China, 
where  the  French  not  only  demanded  the  free  ad- 
mission of  papal  missionaries  into  the  country,  but  a 
restoration  of  the  property  which  in  former  ages 
was  held  by  the  Jesuits.  And  we  shall  doubtless 
see  the  same  thing  done  in  Japan. 

The  Pope  may  not  much  longer  be  able  to  sustain 
his  rank  as  a  temporal  sovereign ;  but  whether  he 
would  be  weakened  or  strengthened  by  the  loss  of 
that,  is  what  I  think  no  one  can  tell.  His  diplomatic 
relations  would  of  course  be  changed,  and  he  might 
not  continue  to  receive  the  customary  secular  sup- 
port from  the  papal  nations ;  and  his  confidence  in 
the  Jesuits,  and  their  subserviency  to  him,  might  be 
diminished.  But  his  strongest  hold  upon  his  follow- 
ers, after  all,  is  spiritual ;  and  one  cannot  be  assured 
that  he  would  not  gain,  if  he  were  deprived  of  his 
temporalities,  and  even  if  cut  loose  from  Rome, 
that  sink  of  iniquity. 

Either  way,  the  Evangelical  Church  must  expect 
to  have  the  "  Man  of  Sin  "  to  contend  with  in  the 
form  of  Romanism,  for  a  long  time  to  come,  and  we 
must  make  up  our  minds  to  it. 

I  regard  the  Papacy  as  an  enemy  of  the  Church  of 
God,  and  to  be  opposed  by  all  proper  means.  But 
so  is  the  great  wicked  world,  of  which  the  Papacy  is 
a  part.  And  this  particular  form  of  the  world's  op- 
position is  perhaps  the  very  best  for  arousing  the 
energies  of  the  Evangelical  Church.    Even  should 


300  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

every  species  of  wickedness  and  enmity  in  the  world 
combine  at  length  under  this  form,  it  might  ulti- 
mately prove  to  be  a  good  thing  for  the  true  Church. 
Suppose  that  Church  were  to  meet  it  everywhere  in 
formidable  phalanx,  ready  for  a  desperate  conflict. 
That  is  perhaps  the  very  warfare,  which  will  soonest 
call  forth  the  requisite  Christian  effort  for  subduing 
the  world  to  Christ ;  not  indeed  without  losses  and 
crosses,  probably  not  without  fire  and  the  sword, 
perhaps  not  without  terrible  exigencies  which  shall 
compel  the  Church  to  look  to  that  Almighty  Arm, 
in  which  alone  is  her  strength. 

When  the  conflict  between  the  two  great  moral 
powers  reaches  its  height,  and  the  noise  thereof  be- 
comes great,  and  men's  hearts  fail  them  for  fear, 
then  may  be  expected  that  divine,  all-powerful  inter- 
vention, foretold  by  prophets  and  apostles,  and  now 
the  hope  of  the  Church,  which  will  give  the  victory 
to  truth  and  righteousness. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

EESUME  AND  CONCLUSION. 

Before  closing  the  volume,  it  may  be  well  briefly 
to  review  the  ground  we  have  gone  over.  Attention 
was  first  called  to  the  remarkable  opening  of  the 
heathen  world  to  the  gospel,  such  as  was  never  seen 
before ;  and  in  the  light  of  history  we  surveyed  the 
grand  operations  of  Divine  Providence,  by  which 
this  opening  had  been  effected.  We  saw  the  leading 
nations  of  Christendom  moved,  as  in  Old  Testament 
times,  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty,  all  working  to- 
gether for  this  result ;  though  they  meant  not  so, 
neither  did  their  heart  think  so.  Hundreds  of 
millions  were  expended  by  them  for  their  own  power 
and  aggrandizement,  but  the  results,  or  a  large  por- 
tion of  them,  were  just  as  needful  for  the  extension 
of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom ;  and  thus  was  accom- 
plished, under  a  wonder-working  Providence,  what 
the  Christian  Church  had  not  now,  and  perhaps 
never  would  have,  the  wealth  and  physical  power 
to  do. 

The  world  becoming  thus  accessible  to  the  gos- 
pel, we  beheld  the  drowsy  churches  of  Christendom 
slowly  awaking  to  a   consciousness  of   their  duty. 


302  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

Moravian  and  Danish  Christians  were  the  first  to 
move ;  then  a  few  English  brethren ;  then  a  few  in 
our  counti*y^ :  and  now  there  is  scarcely  a  section  of 
the  Evangelical  Church,  in  which  there  is  not  a 
response,  and  more  or  less  of  organized  effort. 

Seeing  the  heathen  world  so  marvelously  opening 
to  the  gospel,  and  the  Evangelical  Church  awak- 
ing so  extensively  to  the  duty  of  Christian  missions, 
we  inquired  into  the  nature  of  the  apostolic  mis- 
sions, as  set  forth  in  the  Inspired  Volume.  We 
there  saw,  with  submissive  wonder,  how  the  apostles 
were  left,  somewhat  as  we  are,  to  grapple  with  the 
difiicult  problems  of  their  day,  and  how  hard  it  was 
for  them  to  disencumber  their  minds  from  long- 
standing Jewish  prejudices.  This  being  accom- 
plished, and  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  churches 
they  were  to  form  among  the  heathen  being  settled, 
we  followed  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  in  his  mis- 
sion, and  saw  him  relying  for  success  on  the  cross 
of  Christ  and  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  We 
saw  him  hastening  through  the  different  provinces 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  planting  churches  at  central 
stations,  and  leaving  them  when  fully  organized,  in 
the  belief  that  the  grace  of  God  was  sufficient  to 
guard,  multiply,  and  clothe  them  with  power  and 
glory,  until  the  gospel  should  be  everywhere  tri- 
umphant. We  beheld  the  leaven  thus  cast  into  the 
lump  of  heathenism  gradually  diffusing  itself,  until 
the  whole  was  so  far  leavened,  that  imperial  Rome 


RI^SUME.  303 

was  constrained  to  bow  to  the  supremacy  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  assume  the  Christian  name. 

Looking"  for  developments  of  the  spirit  of  mis- 
sions in  subsequent  ages,  our  attention  was  drawn 
unexpectedly  to  Ireland.  In  that  remotest  of  the 
European  islands,  safe  from  Huns  and  Goths,  and 
with  Britain  for  a  barrier  against  sea-roving  North- 
men, we  found  what  proved  to  be  a  refuge  for  the 
Church  in  the  disordered  and  dangerous  period  of 
the  nominally  Christian  world  following  the  downfall 
of  the  Roman  Empire.  From  thence,  in  successive 
ages,  we  beheld  evangelical  missionaries  going  forth 
into  Scotland,  England,  and  especially  into  Germany, 
sowing  the  seeds,  as  it  long  afterwards  appeared,  of 
the  great  Reformation  which  blessed  Europe  and 
the  world  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

We  next  inquired  into  the  nature  of  the  modern 
warfare  incumbent  on  the  churches  for  subduing  the 
world  to  Christ.  We  found  it  was  spiritual ;  just 
such  a  warfare  as  the  apostles  waged,  with  precisely 
their  object,  with  precisely  their  weapons,  and  with 
their  dependence  on  divine  aid.  We  found  that  the 
churches  of  Christendom,  and  the  missionaries  sent 
forth  by  them,  had  really  the  same  responsibility  in 
respect  to  the  nature  of  the  work,  as  that  which 
rested  on  the  apostles ;  namely,  to  establish  churches 
in  all  places  of  influence,  and  to  see  that  those 
churches  had  competent  native  pastors,  and  were 
trained  to  the  three  grand  necessities  of  a  Christian 


304  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

church,  —  self-government,  self-support,  and  self- 
propagation. 

Having  assumed  it  to  he  the  leading  ohject  of  mis- 
sions among  the  heathen  to  plant  and  multiply  local 
churches  composed  of  native  converts,  with  a  native 
ministry  of  the  same  race,  we  hrought  forward  proofs, 
in  the  eighth  chapter,  of  the  value  of  such  churches. 
This  we  did  hy  adducing  some  of  the  more  striking 
illustrations  to  he  found  among  the  native  converts, 
and  in  the  native  ministry ;  and  we  saw  reason  to 
helieve,  that  the  spirit  of  Christ  is  in  them,  and  that 
no  better  army  is  needed  for  the  conquest  of  the 
world,  than  can  he  enlisted  on  the  ground ;  provided 
there  be  a  sufficient  number  of  competent  leaders 
from  our  training  institutions  at  home,  and  that 
these  be  continued  until  the  native  army  is  suffi- 
ciently enlarged  and  disciplined  for  the  exigencies  of 
the  war. 

We  then  described  the  missionary  life,  as  it  had 
fallen  under  our  personal  observation.  After  assert- 
ing the  high  calling  of  the  missionary  as  a  minister 
of  the  gospel  and  an  ambassador  of  Christ,  we  con- 
templated him  in  the  various  relations  of  his  life, 
and  then  the  influence  of  that  life  upon  his  mental 
development  and  his  religious  character  and  hap- 
piness. 

Our  next  inquiry  was,  how  far  the  modern  Evan- 
gelical Church  has  actually  obeyed  the  Saviour's 
command,  to  go  into  all  the  world.     Knowing  that 


R^SUMi.  305 

the  number  of  ordained  ministers  of  the  gospel 
sent  into  the  field  does  not  exceed  two  thousand, 
it  was  with  some  surprise  and  no  small  pleasure  that 
we  saw  the  extent  to  which  the  un evangelized  world 
had  been  explored,  with  a  view  to  its  occupation  by 
missionaries ;  and  still  more,  how  many  of  the  more 
important  and  influential  posts  have  been  at  least^ 
partially  occupied ;  and  that  the  work  of  translating 
the  Scriptures  has  been  effected  in  nearly  all  the 
more  important  languages  of  the  heathen  world. 

Our  attention  was  then  directed  to  the  fulfillment 
of  the  promise,  ''  Lo,  I  am  with  you ;  "  and  we  saw, 
almost  everywhere  in  the  missions,  convincing  evi- 
dence of  the  faithfulness  of  the  Great  Captain,  and  of 
his  divine  presence  and  blessing.  We  saw  it  among 
the  Cherokees,  the  Choctaws,  the  Dacotahs,  and 
still  more  on  the  Island-groups  in  the  vast  extent 
of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  We  saw  it  among  the  Karens 
of  Burmah,  and  the  devil-worshippers  of  the  Santhal, 
Cole,  and  Shanar  races  of  India.  We  saw  it  in  the 
mighty  changes,  that  are  being  wrought  in  the 
knowledge  and  convictions  of  the  millions  in  that 
country  devoted  to  the  worship  of  Brahma.  We  saw 
it  wonderfully  illustrated  on  the  island  of  Madagas- 
car. We  saw  proofs  of  it  over  a  large  portion  of 
Southern  Africa,  and  most  signally  displayed  in  the 
apostolic  successes  of  the  admirable  missionary 
Johnson  at  Sierra  Leone.  We  saw  it  in  different 
portions  of  Western  Asia. 


306  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

It  was  natural  to  inquire,  what  it  is  that  hinders 
a  more  rapid  advance;  and  the  chief  hindrance 
seemed  to  be  in  the  want  of  appropriate  information 
and  training  in  the  churches  at  home.  The  methods 
of  removing  this,  both  providential  and  human,  were 
indicated.  It  was  also  shown  what  are  the  demands 
of  the  cause  of  missions  on  the  personal  services  of 
the  young  ministers  of  the  gospel. 

An  inquiry  was  then  instituted,  how  far  there  is 
power  in  the  Romish  missions  to  exert  a  renovating 
influence  on  the  heart  and  life  of  the  pagan  world. 
We  found  little  proof  of  the  exercise  of  such  power 
in  the  history  of  those  missions,  nor  in  the  prin- 
ciples underlying  them  ;  and  contrasting  these  prin- 
ciples with  those  of  Protestant  missions,  we  saw  the 
immense  superiority  of  the  latter  as  a  converting 
agency.  Suggestions  were  then  made,  in  the  light 
of  this  discussion,  as  to  the  best  manner  of  working 
the  Protestant  missions  among  the  heathen,  in  the 
presence  of  missions  from  the  Romish  Church.  Our 
first  position  was,  that  we  should  not  use  their 
weapons ;  and  our  second,  that  we  should  do  just 
what  they  do  not  do,  and  what  they  will  not  do. 
For  the  world  is  not  to  be  converted  by  costly 
churches,  nor  by  a  gorgeous  ritual,  nor  by  a  religion 
of  rites  and  forms,  but  by  the  plain,  simple  preach- 
ing of  Christ  crucified,  and  a  worship  which  recog- 
nizes God  as  a  Spirit,  to  be  worshipped  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.     Nor  should  we  be  disquieted  by  the  presence 


CONCLUSION.  307 

of  Romish  missionaries,  since  that  particular  form 
of  the  world's  opposition  is  perhaps  the  very  best  for 
arousing  the  energies  of  the  true  Church  of  God 
in  the  discharge  of  its  great  duty  to  the  heathen 
world. 

CONCLUSION. 

There  is  no  political  movement  in  the  world,  that 
is  commensurate  with  the  missionary  movement ; 
none  that  embraces  so  many  nations,  none  covering 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  globe.  It  is  the  Christian 
Church  going  forth,  under  its  Great  Captain,  for  the 
subjugation  of  the  world. 

The  imperial  warrior,  who  not  many  years  since 
convulsed  the  civilized  world  with  his  ambitious 
schemes,  used  to  make  himself  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  nations  he  designed  to  conquer.  As  a 
means  to  his  end,  he  studied  their  geography,  num- 
bers, government,  and  history,  with  the  character- 
istic ardor  of  his  great  mind.  Facts  were  the  lights 
in  which  he  marched  through  Europe,  and  none 
were  deemed  unimportant,  that  might  aifect  the 
issue  of  a  campaign,  or  a  battle.  And  in  this  mi- 
nuteness and  accuracy  of  information,  with  a  capac- 
ity to  adapt  the  means  at  command  to  the  ends  in 
view,  was  the  secret  of  his  success. 

We,  too,  are  warriors.  And  though  our  contest  is 
spiritual,  of  mind  with  mind,  and  heart  with  heart, 
and  though  our  weapons  are  spiritual,  and  are  made 


308  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

effectual  only  by  divine  aid,  there  is  the  same  de- 
maud  for  inquiry  and  information,  the  same  scope 
and  necessity  for  forethought,  as  in  the  military  en- 
terprise of  Napoleon.  Indeed,  to  a  very  great  extent 
our  inquiries  relate  to  the  same  classes  of  objects ; 
only  they  are  surveyed  from  other  points  of  view, 
and  associated  by  different  relations,  and  estimated 
by  another  species  of  arithmetic  and  measurement. 

The  Evangelical  Church  of  our  day  is  laboring 
more  and  more  on  system,  with  a  constant  advance 
in  her  aggressive  movements,  and  is  more  and  more 
actuated  and  sustained  in  her  efforts  by  the  powerful 
principle  of  faith.  The  Evangelical  Church  is  not 
left,  however,  to  faith  alone.  How  much  there  is  to 
animate  and  strengthen  her  faith  in  beholding  the 
massive  walls,  at  the  very  entrance  of  her  promised 
possession,  which  had  so  long  shut  her  out  from  the 
pagan  world,  overthrown  at  length,  like  those  of 
Jericho,  by  the  unseen  hand  of  the  Almighty.  And 
also  in  beholding  the  same  injfinite  power  creating 
marvelous  facilities  for  traversing  the  globe,  and  in 
witnessing,  in  the  uprising  Church,  what  may  prove 
the  beginning  of  that  outpouring  of  the  Spirit,  — 
sung  by  prophets,  and  longed  for  by  apostles,  — 
which  is  to  arouse  every  Christian  land  for  the  uni- 
versal and  decisive  conflict. 

The  g^piritual  war  for  the  conquest  of  the  world 
has  certainly  begun,  and  in  a  manner  never  seen  in 
any  former  age.     There  is  not  yet,  indeed,  a  popular 


CONCLUSION.  309 

enthusiasm  in  the  churches,  but  that  will  come. 
What  we  most  need,  just  now,  is  deep,  calm,  untir- 
ing principle ;  for  the  contest  upon  which  we  have 
entered  is  vast,  having  for  its  object  the  reign  of 
Christ  over  all  the  earth. 

And  does  any  one  believe  that  He,  who  has  all 
power  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  will  stop,  after  so 
marvelous  an  opening  of  the  heathen  world  to  the 
gospel?  Does  any  one  believe  that  the  churches, 
after  so  many  organizations  for  the  spread  of  the 
gospel,  after  so  much  exploring  of  the  heathen  tribes 
and  nations,  and  after  occupying  thousands  of  posts, 
will  ignominiously  retire  from  the  field  ?  Will  Chris- 
tian people,  will  the  Christian  ministry,  will  the 
Christian  churches  never  feel  a  stronger  interest  in 
the  triumphs  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom  through  the 
world,  than  they  do  now  ?  It  cannot,  it  will  not  be. 
The  churches  will  not  always  be  lukewarm  in  this 
work,  and  they  may  not  be  so  long.  Who  can  tell 
but  that  a  vast  revolution  in  the  views  and  feelings 
of  God's  people  is  near  ?  Who  can  tell  but  that  the 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit  upon  all  flesh,  foretold  by  the 
prophet  Joel,  is  at  hand?  God's  people  and  his 
ministers  will  then  be  made  willing,  beyond  all  they 
now  deem  possible.  They  will  delightfully  awake  to 
the  claims  of  Christ  upon  them.  Vastly  higher  will 
be  their  aims  ;  vastly  broader  their  plans;  and  vastly 
greater  their  ability  to  feel,  pray,  and  consecrate 
their  all  to  him. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX 


COMPETENCE    OF   MISSIONARIES     TO     TESTIFY    CONCERNING 
MISSIONS. 

[From  a  speech  of  Rev.  Dr.  Norman  Macleod,  of  the  Established 
Church  of  Scotland,  after  returning  from  an  official  visit  to  the  Mis- 
sions of  that  Church  in  India.] 

"  But  you  may  say,  *  You  have  come  to  tell  us  about 
India  ;  how  do  you  know  your  facts  are  correct  ? '  I  met  a 
man  the  other  day  at  a  dinner  party,  a  man  who  had  been 
in  India,  and  who  told  me  the  missionaries  there  had  done 
nothing.  Now  those  mysterious  men  are  always  turning 
up  ;  men  who  have  been  in  India,  and  who  tell  you  mission- 
aries have  done  nothing.  I  have  often  met  this  remarkable 
phenomenon.  Well,  in  order  to  ascertain  all  we  could,  Dr. 
Watson  and  myself  put  ourselves  in  communication  with 
men  of  all  classes,  and  first  of  all  with  missionaries.  And 
with  reference  to  the  missionaries,  I  will  maintain  this  :  that 
they  know  more  of  India,  that  their  knowledge  is  more 
correct,  and  their  accounts  are  more  fair  regarding  India, 
than  you  can  get  from  any  other  source.  But  we  do  not 
confine  ourselves  to  missionaries.  We  had  letters,  I 
need  not  say,  from  government,  which  gave  us  access  to 
many  sources  of  information  among  civilians,  —  men  who 


314  APPENDIX. 

had  long  been  in  the  country,  men  who  had  intelligence 
and  knowledge.  We  did  not  confine  ourselves  to  Chris- 
tians, but  went  to  natives  also.  We  had  access  to  what  I 
may  call  the  representative  men,  and  the  kindness  and 
courtesy  we  met  with  from  these  gentlemen  I  shall  never 
forget.  We  heard  all  their  opinions  frankly  and  fully.  We 
did  more  than  that ;  we  called  two  great  meetings,  one  at 
Madras,  the  other  at  Calcutta.  They  were  attended  by  the 
first  men  in  the  country:  in  Calcutta,  by  the  viceroy,  the 
commander-in-chief,  the  governor  of  Bengal,  and  all  the 
heads  of  departments.  The  same  in  Madras.  We  asked 
missionaries  of  all  denominations  to  come  upon  the  plat- 
form and  read  a  vidim'pis  of  their  work ;  what  they  had 
done,  each  in  their  own  department,  what  the  Baptists  had 
done,  what  the  Independents  had  done,  what  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  had  done,  the  Society  for  the  Propaga- 
tion of  the  Gospel,  the  Free  Church,  and  so  on.  And 
upon  the  platform  in  Madras  and  Calcutta  I  stated  this, 
that  one  great  reason  why  we  requested  the  meeting  was, 
that  after  we  had  labored  and  worked,  and  thought  we  had 
a  thorough  understanding  of  the  state  of  matters,  some 
man,  knowing  no  more  about  it  than  a  European  who  had 
been  in  India,  might  pass  the  claret  at  table,  and  say,  '  I 
assure  you,  missionaries  are  doing  nothing.  I  know  all 
about  it.'  Yet  this  man  might  not  know,  perhaps,  a  single 
mission  in  the  parish  in  which  he  lived.  I  said  that  in  the 
presence  of  editors  of  European  papers  in  India ;  in  the 
presence  of  editors  of  native  papers :  in  the  presence  of 
intelligent  Hindus :  in  a  meeting  as  crowded  as  this,  we 
asked  those  reports,  and  challenged  contradiction  on  the 
spot.     We  challenged  it  in  Madras  and  Calcutta,  and  if 


APPENDIX.  315 

the  missionaries  were  not  true,  we  wished  to  have  that 
contradiction  there,  if  we  could  have  it.  We  did  not  go  to 
India  to  get  up  a  fine  story ;  we  did  not  go  to  gather  facts 
only  agreeable  to  ourselves,  and  put  them  aside.  In  God's 
name  we  wished  to  know  the  truth,  and  nothing  but  the 
truth ;  and  could  we  do  more  than  I  have  mentioned  to 
find  out  the  facts  ?  Now,  I  ask  you,  is  it  not  a  very  hard 
thing,  after  we  have  gone,  not  to  one  spot,  not  to  a  civilian 
who  has  stuck  in  one  spot,  not  to  a  missionary  who  has 
stuck  in  one  spot  —  but  after  we  have  gone  through  all  the 
Presidencies,  and  met  with  a  great  many  missionaries  and 
other  people,  trying  to  find  out  the  real  facts,  and  after, 
too,  we  have  called  meetings  and  challenged  contradiction, 
that  all  this  should  be  put  aside  as  nothing,  as  the  mere 
talk  of  ministers  ?  Ask  the  man  who  says  that  missions  in 
India  have  done  nothing,  what  mission  station  he  ever 
visited.  Ask  him  if  he  ever  spent  an  hour  in  his  life 
trying  to  understand  missions.  Ask  him  what  interest  he 
takes  in,  or  what  knowledge  he  has,  of  missions  at  home. 
You  will  invariably  find  that  the  man  who  lives  in  Glas- 
gow, and  talks  in  the  manner  I  have  indicated  concerning 
missions  abroad,  is  just  as  ignorant  about  them  as  a  man 
at  Calcutta  is  of  what  the  Free  Church,  or  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church,  or  the  Episcopal  Church,  or  the 
Established  Church,  are  doing  for  the  advancement  of 
religion  in  Glasgow.  This,  then,  in  answer  to  the  heckling 
question,  *  What  have  you  done  to  ascertain  facts,  and  on 
what  ground  do  you  ask  us  to  have  any  confidence  in 
you?'" 


31G  APPENDIX. 

n. 

SECULAR   NEWSPAPERS    AND    RELIGIOUS    INTELLIGENCE. 

(See  Chapter  XL) 

Since  delivering  his  lectures,  the  author  has  seen  a  brief 
memoir  of  the  Rev.  Austin  Dickinson,  from  which  the 
following  statement,  by  Mr.  Dickinson  himself,  is  ex- 
tracted :  — 

"  From  my  connection  with  the  press,  and  intercourse 
with  editors  of  various  classes,  for  some  twenty  years,  the 
desirableness  of  making  common  secular  newspapers  the 
channels  of  a  decided  religious  influence,  often  occurred  to 
my  mind.  But  it  was  not  till  after  a  more  particular  in- 
vestigation of  their  numbers  and  vast  controlling  influence, 
that  I  felt  urged  by  an  imperative  sense  of  duty  to  volun- 
teer in  a  special  effort  for  their  improvement.  Early  in 
1844  I  ascertained,  from  minute  inquiry,  that  there  were 
then  printed  in  New  York  City  alone  nearly  a  million  of 
newspapers  a  week,  and  that  some  editors  sent  out  weekly 
from  ten  to  sixteen  hundred  exchange  papers  to  other 
editors  throughout  the  country,  besides  many  to  distant 
countries ;  and  that  there  were  then  published  in  the 
United  States  about  four  hundred  million  single  news- 
papers annually,  which  number  has  since  been  rapidly 
increasing.  So  that,  if  a  column  only  of  interesting  relig- 
ious matter  could  be  introduced  into  each  of  these  papers, 
it  would  be  equivalent  to  the  annual  distribution  of  more 
than  sixteen  hundred  million  tract  pages ;  and  this  in  a 
form  most  likely  to  be  read  by  the  whole  community  —  by 


APPENDIX.  317 

millions  who  never  see  a  religious  journal,  and  many  of 
whom  would  only  despise  a  tract.  Previous  to  this  under- 
taking, the  editors  of  secular  papers,  generally,  scarcely 
noticed  religious  movements,  or  seemed  to  feel  any  interest 
in  them.  Much  delicacy  and  prudence  were,  therefore, 
necessary,  in  any  attempt  so  to  change  their  views  and 
tastes,  that  political  journals  might,  without  exciting  preju- 
dice, be  made  the  heralds  of  sacred  truth  and  religious 
instruction." 


III. 

ENGLISH   MISSION    SCHOOLS. 

(See  Chapter  VII.) 

Since  the  delivery  of  the  lectures,  a  valuable  work  by 
Dr.  Mullens  has  been  received,  entitled,  "  London  and 
Calcutta,  comparing  their  Heathenism,  their  Privileges, 
and  their  Prospects ;  showing  the  Claims  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions upon  the  Christian  Church."  The  following  is  an 
extract  bearing  on  the  success  of  missions  :  — 

"It  was  during  this  period  that  the  English  mission 
schools  in  the  great  towns  sprang  into  existence,  and  began 
to  form  a  prominent  and  most  useful  feature  of  Christian 
usefulness.  Nowhere  more  completely  than  in  India  has 
the  ingenuity  of  Christian  men  vigorously  applied  itself  to 
the  production  of  forms  of  agency  adapted  to  the  work  to 
be  accomplished.  General  schemes  had  been  tried  and 
adopted,  in  order  to  overcome  that  most  formidable  oppo- 
nent of  Christianity,  the  caste  system  ;  but  the  right  thing 


818  APPENDIX 

had  not  been  discovered.  Now  it  is  evident,  that  nothing 
will  completely  overthrow  it  but  that  large-hearted  en- 
lightenment which  gives  broad  views  of  human  life,  of  the 
connection  between  man  and  man,  between  race  and  race, 
and  which  tends  to  multiply  the  ties  of  sympathy  between 
one  heart  and  all  others.  Many  agencies  are  needed  for 
an  end  so  vast.  A  just  government  for  all  ranks  of  society, 
public  law,  union  of  separated  provinces,  railways,  abundant 
employment  and  abundant  trade,  and  a  true,  large  educa- 
tion of  the  entire  nature,  of  the  intellect,  the  feelings,  and 
the  conscience,  —  each  and  all  have  an  important  share  in 
the  great  service.  Under  these  powerful  influences,  the 
narrow  social  exclusiveness,  which  is  the  essence  of  caste, 
must  be  swallowed  up  in  broad  convictions  and  generous 
love.  These  influences,  it  may  be  added,  are  at  the  same 
time  the  only  true  cure  for  the  narrow  and  apparently 
hopeless  bigotry  and  exclusiveness  of  the  Mohammedan 
mind.  As  soon  as  the  English  schools  were  tried,  they 
were  found  at  once  to  supply  a  great  want,  and  to  exercise 
a  powerful  influence  in  this  direction.  Boys  were  seen 
speedily  to  acquire  a  contempt  for  idolatry,  fof  temples, 
and  for  legends,  which  long  labors  had  with  difficulty  pro- 
duced in  grown  men.  What  wonder,  then,  that,  in  spite  of 
warm  controversies,  the  English  mission  schools  have 
multiplied,  have  tended  to  feed  and  strengthen  the  three 
Indian  universities,  and  have  contributed  a  fair  share 
towards  the  development  of  that  great  school  of  educated 
and  enlightened  native  scholars,  who,  theists  in  religion, 
have  strongest  sympathies  with  the  elevation  of  their 
country,  and  are  the  only  native  gentlemen  who  are  striv- 
ing to  secure  it.     As  suitable  to  this  class,  a  system  of 


APPENDIX.  319 

Christian  lectures  in  English  has  been  largely  adopted  by 
missionaries  in  the  great  cities,  and  a  special  literature  has 
been  prepared  for  their  use.  From  the  men  thus  educated 
have  come  forth  many  strong  and  steadfast  converts,  who 
have  added  greatly  to  the  strength  and  resources  of  native 
churches,  and  several  of  whom  have  been  ordained  to  the 
ministry  of  the  gospel." 


IV. 

THE   BRAHMO    SAMAJ. 

(See  Chapter  Vn.) 


A  SOCIETY  of  educated  natives  has  grown  up  in  Calcutta, 
called  the  Brahmo  Samnj.  It  contained,  a  few  years  since, 
about  two  thousand  members  ;  and  Dr.  Duff  regards  it  as 
the  result  of  English  high  schools,  and,  so  far  as  the  more 
promising  and  better  part  of  it  is  concerned,  the  result  in 
no  small  degree  of  the  high  schools  sustained  by  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland.  Not  long  since,  a  party  of  progress, 
desirous  of  acting  out  their  anti-idolatrous  convictions,  and 
relieving  themselves  from  the  anti-social  trammels  of  caste, 
separated  and  formed  a  distinct  society,  at  the  head  of 
which  was  a  young  man  of  remarkable  powers  of  intellect, 
named  Babu  Keshub  Chandra  Sen,  a  native  gentleman  of 
independent  means.  Dr.  Murray  Mitchell,  a  venerable 
missionary  of  the  Scotch  Free  Church,  writing  from  Cal- 
cutta, represents  the  junior  section  of  the  Brahmo  Samaj 
as  full  of  life  and  zeal. 

"  They  have  planted  societies,"  he  says,  "  churches,  as 


320  APPENDIX. 

they  call  them,  throughout  Bengal,  in  the  Northwest 
provinces,  the  Punjaub,  Bombay,  and  Madras,  in  which, 
as  they  say,  hundreds  congregate  week  after  week  to  wor- 
ship the  holy  God  in  spirit  and  truth.  And  theirs,  they 
think,  is  the  church  —  at  least  the  Indian  Church  —  of  the 
future.  They  think  that  their  own  society  will  exhibit  a 
purified  Christianity  —  the  very  essence  of  the  gospel ;  and 
while  they  earnestly  say  that  the  future  church  of  India 
will  not  be  an ti- Christian,  they  are  equally  strenuous  in 
declaring  that  it  will  not  be  Christian,  as  Christianity  has 
yet  been  understood."  ^ 

This  Brahmist  school  of  thought .  may  be  said  to  have 
originated  with  Rammohun  Roy,  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago, 
who  undertook  to  reform  Hinduism  on  the  basis  of  a  pure 
theism,  which  he  held  to  be  the  religion  of  the  Yedas.  The 
name  by  which  they  are  now  known  appears  to  have  been 
adopted  about  the  year  1830,  when  many  had  joined  the 
sect,  who,  in  passing  through  the  government  schools,  had 
unlearned  idolatry,  without  having  the  void  filled  by  relig- 
ious instruction.  There  has  been  a  manifest  intellectual 
progress.  They  made  the  discovery,  about  the  year  1846, 
that  the  Vedas  taught  neither  a  personal  God,  nor  the 
grand  distinctions  between  virtue  and  vice.  The  Vedas 
were  consequently  rejected,  and  the  Brahmos  betook 
themselves  to  External  Nature.  Not  being  able  to  find  a 
God  there  to  suit  them,  they  next  turned  to  Internal  Na- 
ture —  to  Intuition  ;  and  called  in  the  aid  of  Francis  New- 
man and  Theodore  Parker.  Here,  too,  they  have  found 
the  ground  giving  way  under  them ;  and  this  discovery,  it 
probably  was,  that  led  to  the  recent  division  into  two  sects, 
i  Monthly  Record  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  1868,  p,  195 


APPENDIX.  321 

A  very  few  have  found  their  way  to  the  revealed  Word, 
and  the  incarnate  Saviour,  and  his  atonement ;  and  there 
is  hope  for  more."  ^ 

It  is  yet  to  be  seen,  how  far  there  will  be  greater  readi- 
ness in  young  deistical  India  to  bow  to  the  cross  of  Christ, 
than  there  is  in  pagan  India. 


PREACHING  AND  EDUCATION. 

(See  Chapter  VII.) 

Dr.  Macleod,  of  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland, 
in  his  recent  report  of  his  visit  as  a  deputation  to  the  mis- 
sions of  that  church  in  India,  referred  to  the  experience  of 
the  Rev.  George  Bowen,  the  excellent  and  long  time  self- 
supported  American  missionary  at  Bombay,  who  had  been 
engaged  in  open-air  preaching  more  than  a  score  of  years, 
without  the  happiness  of  knowing  that  he  had  made  any 
converts.  This  was  adduced  as  an  illustration  of  what  Dr. 
Macleod  regarded  the  paramount  importance  of  schools 
and  education,  as  a  means  of  evangelizing  India. 

The  same  point  was  also  illustrated  by  the  Rev.  William 
Miller,  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  mission  at  Madras, 
in  a  paper  lately  published  in  Scotland,  on  the  "  Principles 
of  Missionary  Work  in  India.'*  Mr.  Miller  regards  the 
Hindus  as  bound  together  in  a  state  of  interdependence  so 
intimate  as  to  form  an  organic  unity ;  so  that  the  influence 
exerted  on  individuals  is  largely  determined  by  the  corpo- 

1  Eepwt  of  Chh.  Miss.  Soc.,  1867-8,  p.  80;  Chk.  Miss,  Intd.,  1868, 

p.  222. 

21 


322  APPENDIX. 

rate  life  which  each  one  shares.  He  regards  the  Shanars 
and  Mahars,  among  whom  the  great  numerical  success  of 
missions  has  hitherto  been,  as  outside  the  real  Hindu  race, 
and  forming  no  part  of  it,  so  that  nothing  effected  among 
them  reaches  the  inner  life  of  the  great  Hindu  community. 
"  Such,"  he  says,  "  were  the  state  and  prospects  of  the 
Christian  cause  in  India,  when  the  Scottish  Church  began 
to  plant  her  missions  there."  After  describing  the  educa- 
tional work  of  those  missions,  he  declares  that  mode  of 
operation  to  be  "  the  most  hopeful  way,  if  not  the  only  one, 
of  reaching  and  affecting  the  inner  life  of  the  community." 
Mr.  Bowen's  attention  was  naturally  drawn  to  the  refer- 
ence made  to  his  experience  by  Dr.  Macleod,  and  the 
"  Bombay  Guardian  "  of  March  6,  1869,  edited  by  him, 
contains  an  editorial  that  is  well  deserving  of  thoughtful 
attention.     The  editor  writes  thus  :  — 

"  There  is  an  organic  unity  in  society ;  a  corporate  life 
in  which  all  participate  ;  we  are  members  of  one  another  ; 
we  are  in  our  measure  affected  by  whatever  affects  the 
corporate  whole  ;  influences  that  tell  upon  individuals,  ter- 
minate not  with  them,  but  radiate  through  the  community. 
Now  we  submit  that  this  great  fact  constitutes  just  as 
cogent  a  reason  for  addressing  ourselves  to  individuals,  in 
the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  as  for  seeking  to  work  upon  the 
mass.  The  fact  of  the  interdependence  of  men  one  upon 
another,  is  just  as  much  an  encouragement  in  laboring 
directly  to  bring  one  man  to  Christ,  as  it  is  in  laboring  to 
pour  Christianizing  influences  into  the  community  at  large. 
For  there  is  no  mightier  Christianizing  influence,  than  that 
which  is  brought  to  bear  upon  a  community  when  a  mem- 


APPENDIX.  323 

ber  of  it  is  persuaded  to  consecrate  himself,  body,  soul, 
and  spirit,  to  the  service  of  Christ.  Again,  the  educational 
missionary  is  not  laboring  for  the  masses,  more  than  the 
open-air  missionary,  who,  year  after  year,  continues  to 
address  the  general  population.  Here  in  Bombay  there 
are,  at  any  one  time,  say  one  thousand  boys  and  young  men 
in  mission  schools,  out  of  a  population  of  eight  hundred 
thousand.  We  have  no  intention  of  denying  the  useful- 
ness of  those  institutions.  Their  importance  may  be  over- 
estimated by  Mr.  Miller,  when  he  intimates  that  they 
afford  probably  the  only  hopeful  way  of  affecting  the 
inner  life  of  the  community ;  but  we  readily  concede  that 
they  occupy  a  very  important  place  in  the  work  of  Indian 
missions.  Yet  we  do  not  agree  that  they  are  more  cer- 
tainly working  upon  the  inner  life  of  the  community  than 
open-air  preachers  of  the  gospel  are,  or  than  are  religious 
tracts  and  books  in  the  vernacular.  Dr.  Macleod,  in  his 
recently  published  lecture  on  Indian  missions,  refers  to  a 
missionary  in  Bombay,  who  has  been  preaching  the  gospel 
for  more  than  twenty  years  in  the  open  air,  without  gather- 
ing any  converts.  We  were  told,  the  other  day,  by  a  gen- 
tleman at  the  head  of  one  of  the  largest  of  our  mission 
educational  institutions,  one  where  a  number  of  devoted 
and  able  missionaries  have  successively  labored,  that,  dur- 
ing thirty  years,  there  had  been  from  it  only  two  converts, 
the  institution  being  carried  on  at  an  average  expense  of 
£1,000  a  year.  Now  we  believe  that  neither  the  mission- 
ary first  mentioned,  nor  the  others,  have  spent  their  strength 
for  nought,  or  labored  in  vain  ;  and  we  believe,  that  when 
the  day  of  fruition  comes,  it  will  be  found  that  the  one 
class  of  laborers  told  just  as  truly  on  the  inner  life  of  the 


324  APPENDIX. 

community,  as  the  other  did.  It  is  admitted  that  very 
great  changes  have  taken  place,  and  are  taking  place,  in 
this  community ;  and  God  knows  that  we  can  very  imper- 
fectly conjecture  what  work  has  tended  to  bring  about 
those  changes ;  but  we  fail  to  see  that  the  secular  and  re- 
ligious instruction  given  in  these  schools,  tends  more  effect- 
ually to  influence  the  common  life  of  the  community,  than 
other  kinds  of  missionary  work  do. 

"  But  let  us  consider  what  the  New  Testament  has  to  tell 
us  of  the  methods  of  those  who  planted  the  first  Chris- 
tian churches.  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  had  before  him  the 
problem  of  winning  to  himself,  and  to  the  service  of  God, 
the  people  of  Judea.  He  went  about  preaching  the  Word, 
and  doing  good.  In  the  open  air,  in  the  synagogues,  every- 
where, we  find  him  setting  forth  the  great  truths  of  the 
kingdom,  and  enduring  the  contradiction  of  sinners.  We 
also  find  him  laboring  with  individuals,  and  gathering  con- 
verts. His  disciples  were  not  converted  Pharisees  or 
Sadducees,  scribes  or  elders,  but  chiefly  men  of  the  people, 
fishermen,  tax-gatherers ;  and  they  were  Galileans,  whose 
provincial  speech  was  held  in  contempt  by  the  higher 
classes,  just  as  Shanars  and  Mahars  are  despised  by  the 
people  of  high  caste  here.  Through  these  individuals  he 
wrought  upon  the  body  politic,  and  wrought  effectually. 
The  nation,  as  a  nation,  was  not  converted,  but  many 
myriads  were.  In  this  way,  and  by  this  despised  instru- 
mentality, he  acted  upon  the  Gentile  world.  The  conver- 
sion of  one  individual,  Paul,  proved  to  be  like  the  conver- 
sioH  of  a  considerable  community.  Paul  went  everywhere, 
seeking  to  save  some  — '  if  by  any  means  I  might  save 
some,'  he  says.     He  and  his  associates  believed  that  the 


APPENDIX.  325 

most  hopeful  way  of  influencing  the  organic  whole,  the 
community  at  large,  was  to  show  them  what  God  could  do 
in  the  way  of  converting,  redeeming,  elevating  individual 
souls. 

"  We  beg  to  dissent  from  what  Mr.  Miller  says,  regard- 
ing the  position  of  the  classes  from  whom  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  converts  have  been  made.  The  Mahars,  for 
instance,  are  as  truly  a  portion  of  the  Hindu  community 
as  the  Brahmins  are.  They  are  the  imtyuj,  the  lowest- 
born,  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale  ;  but  none  the  less  do  they 
belong  to  the  scale.  We  have  seen  Mahar  converts,  whose 
maharism  had  so  effectually  disappeared  with  their  cos- 
tume, that  people  of  all  castes  listened  to  them  without 
being  able  to  discover  that  they  had  not  been  originally  *  of 
good  caste  ; '  a  fact  which,  in  itself,  goes  far  to  dispose  of 
Mr.  Miller's  theory.  And  when  we  consider  that  the 
grandest  revolution  the  world  has  ever  seen,  was  brought 
about  by  '  foolish  things  of  the  world,'  chosen  of  God  to 
confound  the  '  wise, '  *  weak  things  of  the  world,  to  con- 
found the  mighty,  and  base  things,  and  things  despised,  and 
things  which  are  not,  to  bring  to  naught  things  that  are,' 
we  feel  reluctant  to  acquiesce  in  Mr.  Miller's  proposition, 
that  the  Scottish  mission  school  work  is  *  the  most  hopeful 
way,  perhaps  the  only  one,  of  reaching  and  affecting  the 
inner  life  of  the  community.'  " 


326  APPENDIX. 

VI. 

THE    CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

(See  Chapter  IX.) 

The  relations  of  the  gospel  ministry  to  the  work  of  for- 
eign missions,  are  of  sufficient  importance  to  justify  the 
author  in  appending  a  brief  article  on  the  subject,  slightly 
modified,  which  was  communicated  by  him,  in  1865,  to  one 
of  the  religious  newspapers. 

"  The  writer's  connection  with  missions  and  mission 
churches,  has  led  him  to  suppose  there  would  be  important 
advantages  gained  in  apprehending  the  ecclesiastical  status 
of  the  apostolic  age,  were  we  to  contemplate  it  as  an  age  of 
missions  (for  such  it  was),  to  be  illustrated  by  the  missions 
of  the  present  age.  Not  being  aware  that  such  a  thing  has 
been  attempted  in  good  earnest  by  the  writers  on  ecclesias- 
tical history,  he  makes  the  following  suggestions. 

"  It  will  be  conceded,  that  the  basis  of  the  Christian 
nainistry  is  the  commission,  *  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,  baptizing  them  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.'  The  ministry,  thus  constituted,  was  evidently 
designed  for  the  world,  and  for  all  time.  This  is  the 
generic  view  of  that  ministry.  It  was  not  until  about 
twelve  years  after  the  ascension,  that  we  have  any  men- 
tion of  the  ordination  of  pastors.  Then  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas, two  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  '  prophets  and  teachers ' 
at  Antioch,  were,  by  direction  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  set  apart 


APPENDIX.  327 

for  a  mission  to  unevangelized  peoples.  They  were  evi- 
dently accredited  ministers  of  the  Word  before  this  time, 
and  there  is  no  conclusive  evidence  that  their  setting  apart 
as  missionaries  (or  ordination,  as  it  is  improperly  called), 
involved  any  formal  act  of  the  church  of  Antioch  as  such  ; 
it  seems  rather  to  have  been  done  by  their  fellow  '  prophets 
and  teachers ; '  though  it  is  stated  that  the  two  mission- 
aries made  report  to  the  '  church  '  on  their  return.  (Acts 
xiii.  1-3  ;  xiv.  27.) 

"  These  missionaries  appointed  pastors  (presbyters)  of 
the  churches  which  they  had  gathered  in  Lystra,  Iconium, 
and  elsewhere,  and  those  churches  were  what  we  now  call 
mission  churches,  and  the  pastors  were  what  we  call  native 
pastors.  They  were  such  churches  and  pastors  as  mis- 
sionaries are  now  constituting  in  those  same  regions. 
Later,  we  read  of  Titus,  a  convert  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  and 
employed  by  him  in  the  missionary  work,  left  in  Crete  to 
set  in  order  the  churches  planted  in  that  island,  and  ap- 
point pastors  (presbyters)  in  them  ;  with  instructions  to 
join  the  apostle  at  Nicopolis,  as  soon  as  he  had  completed 
that  work.  Timothy,  who  was  also  a  convert  of  the  apostle 
and  a  missionary  under  his  direction,  was  employed  in  a 
similar  service  in  parts  of  Asia  Minor.  These  ecclesias- 
tical acts  are  neither  more  nor  less  than  our  missionary 
brethren  in  Turkey  are  now  performing  in  those  regions. 

"  Such  is  the  view  we  take  of  the  Christian  ministry  and 
Christian  churches  in  the  apostolic  age.  That  ministry,  as 
ultimately  developed  in  that  age,  was  composed  of  both 
missionaries  and  pastors,  —  the  demand  for  pastors  grow- 
ing out  of  the  successful  labors  of  missionaries.  The  mis- 
sionaries were  for  the  planting  of  churches,  and  the  pas- 


328  APPENDIX. 

tors  for  the  edification  of  those  churches,  and  for  securing 
the  conquests:  A  small  number  of  the  missionaries,  called 
apostles,  were  recognized  by  the  rest,  and  by  all  the 
churches,  as  having  extraordinary  revelations  and  author- 
ity conferred  upon  them  by  the  Head  of  the  Church. 

"  Now  if  we  restrict  our  attention  to  the  churches  planted 
by  the  apostles,  we  have  no  difficulty  in  admitting  that  the 
only  officers  in  those  churches  were  presbyters  and  dea- 
cons. What  other  office-bearers  could  churches  so  situated 
have  needed?  Those  infantile  churches  were  no  more 
able  to  institute  foreign  missions  than  were  the  churches 
of  our  fathers  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  church  in 
the  great  city  of  Antioch  may  have  been  an  exception. 
But  the  churches  planted  by  the  first  missionaries,  to  which 
their  letters  were  addressed,  were  persecuted,  impoverished, 
and  feeble,  not  very  unlike  the  mission  churches  of  our 
age.  Their  strength  was  absorbed  in  maintaining  an  ex- 
istence. They  had  no  foreign  missionaries,  no  missionary 
societies,  colleges,  or  theological  schools,  and  consequently 
no  occasion  for  clerical  secretaries,  professors,  and  presi- 
dents. In  these  respects  they  fell  short  of  some  of  our 
modern  mission  churches. 

"  The  New  Testament  narrative  closes  in  the  midst  of 
the  missionary  age  of  the  primitive  churches  ;  and  the  best 
illustration  of  its  ecclesiastical  development  is  probably  to 
be  found  in  those  modern  Protestant  missions,  which  have 
for  their  object  the  raising  up  of  self-governing,  self-sup- 
porting churches ;  though,  as  might  be  expected,  there 
would  seem  to  be  somewhat  more  of  ecclesiastical  organ- 
ization in  the  modern  missions,  than  there  was  in  the  an- 
cient. 


APPENDIX.  329 

"  The  writers  on  Congregationalism  of  the  seventeenth 
century  appear  to  have  lost  sight  of  what  is  certainly  the 
prominent  object  of  the  Christian  ministry,  as  set  forth  by 
our  Lord  in  the  great  commission.  The  view  they  took  of 
the  object  and  duty  of  the  churches  and  ministry,  is  alto- 
gether too  limited.  In  their  anxiety  for  the  orderly  devel- 
opment of  the  churches,  they  seem  almost  to  have  forgotten 
the  unevangelized  world.  This  was  not  strange  considering 
their  circumstances.  But  such  an  oversight  is  impossible 
with  us,  since  the  entire  world,  now  become  accessible, 
appeals  loudly  to  our  Christian  sensibilities.  And  it  is 
now  admitted  that  ordained  ministers  of  the  gospel  ought 
to  become  missionaries,  as  well  as  pastors.  Experience 
has  shown,  too,  that  foreign  missionaries  (as  in  ancient 
times)  ought  very  seldom  to  become  pastors  of  the  churches 
they  gather  from  among  the  unevangelized,  but  should 
ordain  pastors  for  them  from  among  the  native  converts. 
Nor  is  it  found  to  be  possible  to  carry  forward  the  work 
of  Christ's  kingdom  at  home  and  abroad,  on  an  extended 
scale,  without  also  setting  apart  clergymen  to  educate  the 
ministry,  to  correspond  with  the  missionaries,  and  to  per- 
form the  other  needful  agencies  which  none  but  clergy- 
men can  perform  so  well.  Though  missionaries,  presidents, 
professors,  secretaries,  and  clerical  editors  are  not  officers 
in  local  individual  churches,  they  belong  as  really  to  the 
ministry  of  the  denomination  as  if  they  were,  and  are  as 
really  office-bearers  in  the  denomination.  There  can  be 
no  other  conclusion  educed  from  the  inspired  record  in  the 
i!^eyf  Testament. 

"  Thus  we  have  a  ministry  of  the  Word,  meeting  all  the 
exigencies  of  the  case  ;  all  on  an  ecclesiastical  parity  under 


330  APPENDIX. 

the  great  commission  ;  but  existing  for  different  ministerial 
services,  —  as  missionaries,  pastors,  etc.,  etc.,  —  members 
of  one  and  the  same  body,  the  head  of  which  is  Christ,  and 
alike  claiming  his  promised  presence. 

"  In  this  view  of  the  subject,  the  Evangelists  of  the  New 
Testament,  however  gifted  they  may  have  been,  were  only 
missionaries.  The  apostles  were  also  missionaries,  but 
with  an  extraordinary  inspiration  and  authority  peculiar  to 
themselves.  The  eTrto-KOTroi,  overseers,  superintendents, 
bishops,  contemporaries  with  the  apostles,  were  the  same  as 
presbyters,  elders,  pastors.  The  ruling,  spoken  of  in  the 
New  Testament,  is  a  thing  understood  in  the  mission 
churches  of  our  day  (though  perhaps  not  exactly  in  the 
ancient  form),  where  pastoral  authority  is  just  as  needful 
in  the  infancy  of  those  churches,  as  parental  authority  is  in 
the  early  years  of  a  family.  Among  the  churches  on  the 
Hawaiian  Islands,  for  instance,  the  missionaries  felt  it 
necessary  to  exercise  authority  in  the  native  churches  for 
a  course  of  years,  and  what  of  authority  remained  in  the 
year  1863,  and  was  deemed  to  be  still  necessary,  was  then 
transferred  to  the  Associations  and  Presbyteries,  —  the 
former  intending  to  relinquish  it  to  the  local  churches,  as 
soon  as  the  native  pastorate  had  made  advances  to  render 
it  a  safe  deposit." 


APPENDIX.  331 

vn. 

SUCCESS    OF   MISSIONS. 

(See  Chapter  Xn.) 

Although  enough  has  been  said  to  demonstrate  the 
fact  of  God's  blessing  upon  the  missions  of  the  Protestant 
churches,  in  the  unevangelized  world,  the  following  state- 
ment, from  the  valuable  new  work  of  Dr.  Mullens,  entitled 
"  London  and  Calcutta,"  is  too  suggestive  to  be  omitted. 

"  A  mere  description  of  the  range  of  labor,  the  number 
of  agents,  and  of  the  annual  sum  expended  in  these  foreign 
missions,  does  little  to  indicate  what  the  missionary  efforts 
of  the  churches  in  foreign  lands  really  include.  Around 
each  laborer  cluster  a  variety  of  agencies,  which  contribute 
greatly  to  the  efficiency  of  his  own.  Missionary  life  has 
its  tools  of  trade,  as  well  as  other  employments.  Every- 
where they  have  been  secured  with  wonderful  complete- 
ness, in  great  variety,  and  have  been  wisely  adapted  both 
to  the  place  of  work  and  to  the  duty  to  be  done.  To  any 
one  who  is  well  acquainted  with  many  fields  of  mission- 
ary effort,  nothing  appears  so  striking  as  the  way  in 
which  the  frame-work  of  effort,  the  power  of  agency,  and 
the  mode  in  which  they  are  applied,  have  been  fitted  to  the 
varied  spheres  for  which  they  have  been  required.  Long 
since,  dwelling-houses,  chapels,  school-rooms,  press-rooms, 
have  been  provided,  suited  to  climate,  country,  and  people. 
In  some  lands  the  chapel,  in  others  the  school,  occupies 
the  most  prominent  place.  Here  boats  have  been  secured 
for  island  visiting ;  there  canoes  for  inland  creeks ;  in  an- 


332  APPENDIX. 

other  station  palankin  chairs,  or  bullock  carriages,  are 
most  required.  How  much  labor  has  been  concentrated 
on  the  translation  of  the  Bible,  on  the  small  libraries  of 
Christian  books,  on  the  dictionaries,  grammars,  and  vocab- 
ularies of  the  many  tongues  employed !  Discussions  for 
the  learned,  simple  papers  for  the  villager,  comments  for 
the  native  teachers,  English  lectures  for  the  educated, 
vernacular  tracts  for  the  plain  reader,  —  all  find  their  place 
among  these  literary  agencies.  Arguments  that  have  been 
found  effective,  illustrations  which  strike  attention,  modes 
of  agency  which  draw  hearers,  plans  that  suit  heathen 
and  Christian,  —  all  have  been  noted,  tested,  and  laid 
up  as  experience  for  the  use  of  others.  And  as  years  have 
gone  by,  as  younger  missionaries  have  based  their  efforts 
on  the  toil  of  their  predecessors,  what  wonder  that  their 
teachings  have  become  more  effective,  and  that  the  soil 
previously  prepared  gives  promise  of  early  and  abundant 
harvests  !  How  steady,  also,  and  patient  the  toil  has  been ! 
"  Yet,  putting  all  together,  —  taking  the  sum  of  all  the 
men,  and  agencies,  and  funds  employed  at  the  present 
time  in  foreign  missions,  —  how  small  the  total  appears ! 
It  is  for  itself,  for  its  intrinsic  worth,  for  the  enterprise 
which  it  undertakes,  and  the  prospects  which  it  con- 
templates, that  missionary  worth  has  excited  so  deep  an 
interest,  and  takes  so  prominent  a  place  before  the  Chris- 
tian world.  It  is  not  for  the  number  either  of  the  agencies 
or  of  the  men.  Putting  these  all  together,  they  are  few 
and  small.  The  hundred  missionaries  in  China,  with  their 
wives  and  children,  would  not  fill  an  ordinary  lecture- 
room.  Yet  they  are  all  the  Christian  agency  given  to  that 
great  empire  by  the  Church  of  Christ.     The  whole  band 


APPENDIX. 


333 


of  foreign  missionaries  sent  forth  by  Europe  and  America 
to  other  races  than  their  own,  Jewish,  heathen,  and  Chris- 
tian, numbers  only  two  thousand  and  thirty-three  indi- 
viduals. And  for  the  entire  undertaking  is  expended 
every  year  only  the  sum  of  one  million  sterling." 


VIII. 

tabular  views. 

(See  Chapter  XXL) 

I.  Benevolent  Societies,  as  they  were  in  the.  Year  1820. 

The  view  here  presented  was  prepared  by  the  author 
for  the  first  number  of  the  "  Christian  Almanac,"  pub- 
lished in  the  year  1821,  of  which  he  was  the  editor ;  being 
then  a  member  of  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Andover. 
It  indicates  the  development  of  benevolent  enterprises  in 
the  evangelical  churches,  as  they  were  fifty  years  ago. 
The  "  Christian  Almanac  "  was  soon  afler  adopted  by  the 
American  Tract  Society,  and  immense  numbers  have  been 
published.  Only  two  copies  of  the  first  number  are  now 
known  to  the  author.  The  tables  are  copied  without  alter- 
ation. 

1.  —  Principal  Bible  Societies  in  the  World. 


British  and  For.  Bib.  Soc. 
Basle  Bible  Society  . 
Ratisbon  Bible  Society 
Berlin  Bible  Society  . 
Swedish  Bible  Society 
Zurich  Bible  Society  . 


EUROPE. 

INSTITUTED 

INSTITUTED 

>c.   .  1804 

Hungarian  Bible  Society 

1812 

.     .  1804 

Wurtemburg  Bible  Society 

1812 

.     .  1805 

Koenigsberg  Bible  Society 

1812 

.     .  1805 

Finnish  Bible  Society  .     . 

1812 

.     .   1809 

Chur  Bible  Society     .     . 

1813 

.     .  1812 

SchaflFhausen  Bible  Society 

1813 

334 


APPENDIX. 


INSTITUTKD 

Russian  Bible  Society .     .  .  1813 

St.  Gall  Bible  Society      .  .1813 

Bern  Bible  Society     .     .  .1813 

Lausanne  Bible  Society  .  .  1814 

Geneva  Bible  Society  .     .  .1814 

Berg  Bible  Society      .     .  .1814 

Cologne  Bible  Society     .  .1814 

Hanover  Bible  Society     .  .  1814 

Hambro-Altona  Bible  Soc.  .  1814 

Lubeck  Bible  Society  .     .  .1814 

Prussian  Bible  Society    .  .  1814 

Thuringian  Bible  Society  .  1814 

Saxon  Bible  Society   .     .  .1814 

Danish  Bible  Society  .     .  .1814 

Aargovian  Bible  Society .  .  1815 

Strasburg  Bible  Society  .  .1815 

Bremen  Bible  Society .     .  .1815 

Pomerania  Bible  Society .  .  1815 

Brunswick  Bible  Society  .  .1815 

Eichsfield  Bible  Society  .  .1815 

Icelandic  Bible  Society    .  .  1815 
Sleswick-Hol  stein  Bib.  Soc.  1815 

Neufchatel  Bible  Society  .  .1816 

Waldenses  Bible  Society  .1816 

Koenigsfeld  Bible  Society  -.  1816 
Hesse-Homburg  Bible  Soc.  .  1816 

Nassau  Bible  Society  .     .  .1816 


Frankfort  Bible  Society  . 
Kreutznach  Bible  Society 
New  Wied  Bible  Society . 
Lippe-Detmold  Bible  Soc. 
Lauenburg-Retzeburg  B.  S 
Mecklenburg  Schwerin  B.  S 
Rostock  Bible  Society    . 
Norwegian  Bible  Society 
Polish  Bible  Society   .     . 
Netherlands  Bible  Society 
Hesse-Darmstadt  Bible  Soc 
Waldeck  &  Pyrmont  Bib.  S 
Eutin  Bible  Society    .     . 
Rendsburg  Bible  Society 
Malta  Bible  Society     .     . 
Hanau  Bible  Society  .     . 
Hesse-Cassel  Bible  Society 
Gottingen  Bible  Society  . 
Hildensheim  Bible  Society 
Eisenach  Bible  Society     . 
Anhalt  Bible  Society  .     . 
Paris  Protestant  Bible  Soc 
Glarus  Bible  Society  .     . 
Montauban  Bible  Society 
Ionian  Bible  Soc.  at  Corfu 
Athens  Bible  Society  .     . 


1816 
1816 
1816 
1816 
1816 
1816 
1816 
1816 
1816 
1816 
1817 
1817 
1817 
1817 
1817 
1818 
1818 
1818 
1818 
1818 
1818 
1818 
1819 
1819 
1819 
1819 


INSTITUTED 

Calcutta  Auxiliary  Society  .  1811 
Columbo  Auxiliary  Society .  1812 
Bombay  Auxiliary  Society  .  1813 
Java  Bible  Society .  .  .  .1814 
Amboyna  Bible  Society  .     .1815 


INSTITPTED 

Astrachan  Bible  Society  .  .1815 
New  South  Wales  Aux.  Soc.  1817 
Tobolsk  Bible  Society  .  .1817 
Sumatra  Bible  Society  .  .1817 
Smyrna  Bible  Society     •     .1817 


AFRICA. 


INSTITUTED 


Mauritius  &  Bourbon  Aux- 
iliary Society 


1815 


INSTITUTED 


Caledon  Auxiliary  Society  .  1815 
Sierra  Leone  Auxiliary  Soc.  1816 


APPENDIX.  835 


AMERICA  AND   THE  WEST   INDIES. 


INSTITUTED 

Nova  Scotia  Auxiliary  Soc.  1813 
Pictou  Auxiliary  Society  .  1813 
Quebec  Auxiliary  Society  .  1813 
Berbice  Auxiliary  Society  .  1815 
Antigua  Auxiliary  Society  ,  1815 
American  National  Bib.  Soc.  1816 
Yarmouth  and  Argyle  Aux- 
iliary Society 1816 


INSTITUTED 

Niagara  Auxiliaiy  Society  .  1816 
Liverpool  Auxiliary  Society  1817 
Prince  Edward's  Island  Aux- 
iliary Society 1817 

Upper  Canada  Aux.  Society  1817 
Honduras  Auxiliary  Society  1818 
Barbadoes  Auxiliary  Society  1818 
Bermudas  Auxiliary  Soc.    .  1819 


A  large  proportion  of  these  societies  have  branches  ftid 
auxiliaries.  The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  has 
637 ;  the  Russian  Bible  Society,  120 ;  the  Prussian,  23 ; 
the  Sleswick-Holstein,  101  ;  the  American,  228,  etc.  The 
whole  number  of  Bible  societies  in  the  world  exceeds  one 
thousand  five  hundred.  These  have  all  been  instituted 
since  the  year  1804.  The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  So- 
ciety may  be  considered  as  the  parent  of  all  the  others, 
as  it  was  the  means,  directly  or  indirectly,  of  establishing 
them,  and  is  the  patron  of  most  of  them.  Since  its  foun- 
dation, it  has  assisted  in  printing  the  Bible  in  forty-nine 
languages  and  dialects,  in  which  it  was  never  before 
printed,  and  is  now  assisting  in  translating  and  printing  it 
in  thirty-eight  other  languages  and  dialects,  into  which  it 
has  never  yet  been  translated.  The  whole  number  of  lan- 
guages and  dialects,  in  which  this  noble  institution  has 
aided  in  translating,  printing,  and  distributing  the  Word  of 
God,  is  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven !  Its  income  for 
the  year  1811,  was  four  hundred  and  nineteen  thousand 
one  hundred  and  forty -one  dollars.  During  the  first  fif- 
teen years  of  its  existence,  it  expended  three  million  one 
hundred  and  thirty-two  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  dollars  for  the  simple  purpose  of  disseminating  the 
Bible  through  the  world. 


336 


APPENDIX. 

2.  —  Foreign  Mission  Societies. 


Societies. 

Countries. 

Founded. 

Mission- 
aries. 

Income  in 
1818-19. 

Soc.  Prop.  Gos.i  .     . 

England  .    . 

1647 

1 

$61,.350  00 

Soc.     Prom.     Chris- 

tian Knowl.2  .    .     . 

England   .     . 

1701 

8 

247,250  00 

Soc.   Prop.   Gos.   N. 

^m.  Ind.      .     .     . 

Scotland  .     . 

- 

5 

_ 

Danish  Mission  Col. 

Denmark  .     . 

1715 

2 

United  Brethren   .     . 

- 

1732 

84 

22,912  00 

Methodist  Miss.  Soc. 

England  .     . 

1786 

66 

101,839  00 

Baptist  Miss.  Soc. 

England  .     . 

1792 

72 

29,547  00 

London  Miss.  Soc.^   . 

England  .     . 

1795 

84 

94,614  29 

Scotch  Miss.  Soc. .     . 

Scotland  .     • 

1796 

12 

32,703  93 

Church  Miss.  Soc.      . 

England  .     • 

1800 

74 

121,958  65 

London  Jews  Soc*    . 

England  .     . 

1809 

1 

40,871  26 

Am.  B.  C.  F.  Miss.    . 

United  States 

1810 

35 

34,166  68 

Baptist  B.  F.  Miss.    . 

United  States 

1814 

5 

18,942  17 

United  F.  Miss.  Soc. 

United  States 

1817 

3 

- 

Negro  Conver.  Soc.  . 

England  .     . 

6 

- 

Total    .... 

458 

$806,154  08 

1  The  exertions  of  this  society  are  confined  chiefly  to  the  British 
Provinces  in  North  America. 

2  Of  the  income  of  this  society,  $172,573  was  expended  on  the  desti- 
tute at  home.  Among  other  things,  this  society  is  engaged  in  giving  a 
religious  education  to  more  than  100,000  poor  children. 

^  This  society  has  several  auxiliary  societies  among  the  converts 
from  heathenism  in  Africa,  and  three  in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  At  the  last  annual  meeting  of  one  of  these,  nearly  6,000 
natives  were  present,  and  voted.     King  Pomare  is  president. 

*  A  Jews  Society  was  some  years  since  formed  by  ladies  of  Boston, 
and  another,  more  recently,  by  ladies  in  Portland.  The  former  has 
annually  contributed  $444  to  the  London  Jews  Society,  and  $100  for 
i,he  education  of  Jewish  children  at  Bombay. 


APPENDIX. 


337 


3.  —  Geographical  View  of  the  Missionaries  employed  by  each 
Society,  and  of  the  Missionary  Stations  occupied  by  them. 


Countries. 


West  Africa 


South  Africa 

Mauritius  Island 
Madagascar  .     . 


Malta 


Ionian  Islands  . 
Palestine  .  .  . 
Constantinople . 
Polish  Jews  .     . 

Russia  in  Asia  . 

Thibet  .  .  . 
Farther  India    . 


Hindostan     .     . 


Ceylon  .    . 

Asiatic  Islands  . 
New  Zealand    . 


Societies. 


Church  Miss.  Soc. 
Methodist  Miss.  Soc 
Soc.  for  Prop.  Gospel 
London  Miss.  Soc. 
United  Brethren   . 
Methodist  Miss.  Soc. 
London  Miss.  Soc. 
London  Miss.  Soc. 
Church  Miss.  Soc. 
London  Miss.  Soc. 
London  Miss.  Soc. 
American  Board  . 
Church  Miss.  Soc. 
London  Jewish  Soc. 
Scotch  Miss.  Soc. 
United  Brethren  . 
London  Miss.  Soc. 
Church  Miss.  Soc. 
London  Miss.  Soc. 
American  Baptists 
English  Baptists  . 
Church  Miss.  Soc. 
London  Miss.  Soc. 
Christian  Knowl.  Soc 
American  Board  . 
Methodist  Miss.  Soc 
Danish  Missions  . 
Methodist  Miss.  Soc. 
American  Board  . 
Church  Miss.  Soc. 
English  Baptists  . 
English  Baptists  . 
London  Miss.  Soc. 
Church  Miss.  Soc. 


Mission- 
aries. 

Mission- 
aries. 

15^ 

1  > 

17 

1  ^ 

21^ 

12  > 

37 

4) 

1 

1 

1 

1 

l\ 

3 

1 

1 

2 

2 

1 

1 

1 

1 

12^ 

3> 

18 

3) 

1 

1 

l\ 

9 

64^ 

43 

26 

8  [ 

152 

5 

4 

2J 

14] 

7 
4 

27 

2 

l\ 

6 

5 

5 

Stations. 


10 


46 


12 


338 


APPENDIX. 

Geographical  View  —  Continued. 


Countries. 

Societies. 

Mission- 
aries. 

Mission- 
aries. 

Stations. 

Society  Islands      .     . 

London  Miss.  Soc.    . 

16 

16 

4 

Sandwich  Islands  .     . 

American  Board  .     . 
United  Brethren  .     . 

8 

8 

1 

Guiana     .     .    .     .    ) 

London  Miss.  Soc.    . 
Methodist  Miss.  Soc. 

2) 

14 

4 

r 

Methodist  Miss.  Soc. 

41^ 

United  Brethren  .     . 

29 

West  Indies      .    .    - 

Conv.  Negro  SI.  Soc. 
Church  Miss.  Soc.     . 
English  Baptists  .     . 

6 
3 

1 

- 

81 

38 

I 

London  Miss.  Soc.    . 

1 

/ 

American  Board  .     . 

7  ^ 

Cherokee  Indians  .    \ 

United  Brethren  .     . 
American  Baptists    . 

l[ 

1  ) 

9 

5 

Choctaw  Indians    .     . 

American  Board  .     . 

4 

1 

1 

Arkansas  Indians 

American  Board  .     . 

2 

2 

1 

Ind.tr.inN.Y.&N.J. 

Soc.  for  Prop.  Gospel 

5 

5 

2 

Osage  Indians   .     .     . 

United  For.  Miss.  Soc, 

3 

3 

1 

Illinois  Indians  .     .     . 

American  Baptists    . 

2 

2 

1 

Delawares  &Cliippewas 

United  Brethren  .     . 

2 

2 

2 

Labrador 

United  Brethren  .     . 

19 

19 

3 

Greenland     .... 

United  Brethren  .     . 

11 

11 

3 

455 

156 

APPENDIX, 


839 


4.  —  Religious  Tract  Societies. 


Societies. 

Instituted. 

Income,  1819. 

Whole  No.  issued. 

London  Relig.  Tract  Soc. 
New  England  Tract  Soc. 
New  York  Tract  Society 
Church  of  Eng.  Tract  Soc. 

1799 
1813 

1813 

$27,477  00 
2,006  00 

$30,000,000  00 
2,240,000  00 

5.  —  Societies  for  Educating  Pious  Young  Men  for  the  Ministry. 


Societies. 

Instituted. 

Income,  1820. 

Maine  Education  Soc.  aft.  Aux.  to  Am.  Ed. 
Massachusetts  Baptist  Education  Society- 
American  Education  Society  ^  .     .     .     . 

Soc. 

1813 
1814 
1815 
1818 
1819 
1819 

$1,372  00 

13,490  00 

565  00 

New  York  Baptist  Education  Society    . 
Maine  Baptist  Education  Society      .     . 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Education      .     . 

An  association  existed  in  Holland  as  early  as  1633,  for 
educating  pious  men  for  the  ministry. 

1  The  American  Educational  Society  has  assisted  277  students  in 
their  preparatory  studies.     The  income  in  1819  was  $21,291  00. 


340 


APPENDIX. 


6.  —  Other  Societies  for  Improving  the  Rising  Generation, 


Societies. 

Insti- 
tuted. 

Income. 

No.  of 
Schools. 

No.  in 
School. 

National  Education  Soc.  Eng. 
British  &  Foreign  School  Soc. 
Sunday  School  Union,  Eng.    . 
Sabbath  School  Union,  Scot.  . 
Sunday  School  Soc.  for  Ireland 
N.  Y.  Sunday  School  Un.  Soc. 
Boston  Soc.  for  Religious  and 
Moral  Instruction  of  Poor  . 

1813 

$21,099  00 
10,269  00 

~ 
_ 

1467 

2029 
480 

36 

8 

200,000 

237,584 

34,000 

84,147 

3,500 

700 

Total 

4020 

559,981 

The  British  and  Foreign  School  Society  exerts  a  salutary 
influence  over  schools  in  France,  Spain,  Russia,  Germany, 
Italy,  Malta,  the  United  States,  Nova  Scotia,  Hayti,  and 
the  East  Indies. 


7.  —  Institutions  for  Africans. 

African  Institution,  Eng.,  instituted  1791.  American 
Colonization  Society,  instituted  1817.  Benezet's  African 
School  in  Philadelphia,  instituted  1782.  School  for  edu- 
cating young  men  of  color  for  preachers  and  teachers  to 
the  African  race,  instituted  1816.  This  school  is  estab- 
lished in  New  Jersey.  In  1819,  seven  young  men  of 
color  were  there  preparing  for  the  ministry.  It  is  under 
the  management  of  a  Board  of  Directors  annually  ap- 
pointed by  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey.     In 


APPENDIX.  341 

1792,  the  African  Institution  transported  more  than  a 
thousand  blacks  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Sierra  Leone.  At 
that  colony  there  were  "  many  thousand  "  negroes,  liberated 
from  slave  ships.  The  American  Colonization  Society  has 
planted  a  colony  at  Sherbro,  east  of  Sierra  Leone. 

n.  —  Societies  for  Foreign  Missions,  at  the  Present  Time. 

The  tabular  views  now  to  be  given  of  the  operations  of 
foreign  missionary  societies,  as  they  exist  at  the  present 
time,  may  be  found  to  differ  somewhat  from  each  other, 
and  not  to  correspond  entirely  with  statements  in  the  body 
of  the  work.     Perfect  accuracy  is  not  easily  attainable. 


842 


APPENDIX. 


1.  —  Societies  in  the  United  States  of  America.    1868. 


Insti- 
tuted. 

Societies. 

Expenditures. 

Mission- 
aries. 

Native 
Agents. 

Sta- 
tions. 

98 

Commu- 
nicants. 

1810 

A.  B.C.  For.  Miss. 

$530,885  00 

140 

965 

25,538 

1814 

Am.  Baptist  Miss. 

Union     .     .    . 

214,411  00 

42 

400 

18 

19,908 

1819 

Methodist     Epis. 

Miss.  Society  i . 

275,866  00 

130 

256 

50 

7,468 

1832 

Bd.   of  Reformed 

(Dutch)  Church 

90,745  00 

12 

58 

15 

1,140 

1833 

Free  Will  Baptist 

For.  Miss.  Soc. 

69,955  00 

8 

10 

4 

134 

1833 

Presbyterian    Bd. 

Foreign  Miss.  . 

312,828  00 

79 

101 

49 

1,616 

1835 

Epis.  Bd.  of  Miss. 

79,929  00 

17 

14 

22 

628 

1837 

Evang.  Lutheran 

Missionary  Soc. 

15,509  00 

- 

30 

4 

633 

1844 

Bd.  of  Reformed 

Pres.  Church    . 

9,951  00 

2 

- 

2 

- 

1844 

Bd.of  Associated " 

Pres.  Church 

Merged  in  the 

Board 

ofUni 

tedP 

resb. 

1844 

Bd.of  Associated 
Ref.  Church 

Churc 

h. 

1845 

Southern  Baptist 

Convention .     . 

14,832  00 

11 

_ 

11 

1,500 

1846 

Am.  Miss.  Ass.i  . 

25,824  00 

10 

2 

11 

- 

1849 

Am.  and  Foreign 

Christ.  Union  i 

Not  known. 

_ 

_ 

- 

- 

1859 

United  Pres.  Ch. 

68,053  00 

18 

55 

14 

239 

1861 

Southern      Pres. 

Bd.  For.  Miss. . 

18,000  00 

12 

4 

12 

1,200 

Total   .     .     . 

$1,726,788  00 

481 

1,895 

310 

60,004 

1  Proportion  for  foreign  missions. 


APPENDIX. 

2.  —  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.     1868. 


343 


Insti- 

Societies. 

Expenditures.      I 

mission- 

Native 

Sta- 

Commu- 

tuted. 

aries. 

Agents. 

tions. 

nicants. 

1701 

Soc.  for    Prop,   the 

Gospel    .... 

$249,310  00 

125 

- 

- 

- 

1792 

Baptist     Missionary 

Society    .... 

163,970  00 

62 

- 

_ 

_ 

1795 

London    Missionary 

Society    .... 

526,445  00 

159 

720 

81 

29,847 

1800 

Church    Missionary 

Society    .... 

754,320  00 

198 

1987 

155 

15,523 

1816 

General  Baptist  Mis- 

sionary Society     . 

24,900  00 

7 

18 

9 

433 

1817 

Wesley  an  Missionary 

Society    .... 

584,260  00 

175 

104 

157 

47,480 

1824 

Church  of  Scotland  . 

26,185  00 

7 

_ 

- 

- 

1840 

Welsh       Calvinistic 

Methodist  Miss.     . 

14,865  00 

4 

- 

_ 

_ 

1840 

Irish  Presb.  Church 

19,080  00 

8 

- 

_ 

- 

1841 

Edinburgh  Med.  Miss. 

5,400  00 

3 

_ 

- 

_ 

1842 

Reformed  Presb.  Ch. 

10,000  00 

7 

- 

- 

_ 

1843 

Free  Church  of  Scot- 

land     

159,145  00 

24 

146 

36 

1,674 

1844 

South  Am.  Mission 

36,675  00 

10 

_ 

_ 

_ 

1847 

United  Presbyterian 

Mission  .... 

110,805  00 

38 

- 

_ 

- 

1854 

Turkish       Missions 

Aid  Society      .    . 

8,295  00 

- 

- 

- 

_ 

1860 

United    '   Methodist 

Free  Church     .     . 

25,015  00 

25 

- 

- 

- 

English  Presb.  Ch.  . 

36,780  00 

10 

- 

- 

- 

Moravian,     English 

Branch    .... 

24,275  00 

- 

- 

- 

_ 

Foreign  Evangelist  . 

7,215  00 

- 

- 

- 

- 

Garrow  Mission  .     . 

2,185  00 

2 

- 

- 

_ 

Methodist  New  Con- 

nection   .... 
Total  .... 

9,020  00 

4 

- 

- 

$2,798,145  00 

868 

- 

- 

344 


APPENDIX. 


3.  —  Societies  for  Jewish  Missions.     1867. 
[From  Dr.  Mullens'  "  London  and  Calcutta."] 


Societies. 

Amount  ex- 
pended. 

Missionaries, 

Ordained  and 

Lay. 

1.  London  Society  for  Promoting  Chris- 

tianity among  Jews 

2.  British   Society  for  Promoting   Chris- 

tianity among  Jews 

3.  Church  of  Scotland  Mission    .... 

4.  Free  Church  Mission 

5.  Irish  Protestant  Mission 

6.  Jerusalem  Society,  Berlin 

7.  Basle  Union 

$173,415 

37,395 
17,225 

20,795 
8,995* 
4,460 
2,925 

1,780 

51 

26 
5 
6 
4 
1 

8.  Netherlands  Union 

3 

Total      ...... 

$266,990 

96 

APPENDIX. 


345 


4.  —  Continental  Missionary  Societies.     1867. 
[From  Dr.  Mullens'  "  London  and  Calcutta."] 


No 

Societies. 

Amount  ex- 
pended. 

No.  of  Euro- 
pean Mission- 
arieH. 

Countries. 

1 

United  Brethren   .    . 

$90,140 

160 

Various. 

2 

Berlin  Missionary      . 

40,510 

19 

S.  Africa. 

3 

Ehenish  Missionary  . 

62,480 

36 

S.  Africa. 

4 

Evangelical  Mission- 

ary (Berlin)  .     .     . 

21,450 

22 

Coles,  Bengal. 

5 

N.  German  Mission- 

ary (Bremen)    .    . 

18,750 

15 

W.  Africa. 

6 

Leipsic  Lutheran  Mis- 

sionary    .... 

41,235 

19 

S.  India. 

7 

Basle  Mission  .     ;     . 

171,770 

92 

Various. 

8 

Paris  Missionary  .     . 

52,290 

26 

S.  Africa. 

9 

Netherlands  Mission- 

ary Society   .     .     . 

35,000 

12 

Java. 

10 

Netherlands  Mission- 

ary Union     .     .     . 

11,860 

5 

- 

11 

Utrecht  Miss.  Soc.     . 

16,290 

15 

E.  Islands. 

12 

Netherlands  Reform'd 

Miss.  Society     .     . 

5,000 

3 

Java. 

13 

Danish  Miss.  Soc. 
Total     .... 

- 

1 

E.  India. 

$566,775 

425 

SUMMARY. 

Societies  in  the  United  States 
Societies  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
Societies  for  Jewish  Missions  . 
Continental  Missionary  Societies    . 

Grand  Total     .... 
Number  of  Missionaries  . 


$1,723,788 

2,798,145 

266,990 

566,775 

$5,355,698 
1.870 


346 


APPENDIX. 


5. —  Summary  View  of  Protestant  Missions. 

[From  Dr.  John  C.  Lowrie's  "  Manual  of  the  Foreign  Missions  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church/'  1868.] 

In  the  different  Mission  Fields, 


Ordained 

Assistant 

Missionaries. 

Missionaries. 

Commu- 
nicants. 

Mission  Fields. 

Scliolars. 

For- 

Na- 

For- 

Na- 

eign. 

tive. 

eign. 

tive. 

American  Indians    .    . 

105 

16 

135 

14 

8,192 

1,766 

Spanish  Amer.  States  . 

32 

1 

39 

2 

928 

483 

Guiana  &  West  Indies 

217 

81 

250 

_ 

79,879 

17,047 

Africa  —  N.  and  E.,  and 

Madagascar .     .     . 

28 

97 

41 

- 

4,718 

2,335 

Western  Africa     .     . 

132 

29 

115 

99 

14,093 

8,408 

South  Africa    .     .     . 

277 

6 

323 

14 

30,402 

16,448 

Asia  —  Western  .     .     . 

89 

113 

92 

237 

3,115 

7,353 

India  and  Ceylon    . 

533 

203 

563 

2,769 

35,440 

92,476 

Burmah  and  Siam  . 

35 

106 

37 

250 

9,237 

1,516 

China  and  Japan     . 

133 

10 

119 

178 

3,577 

1,532 

Islands  —  China    Sea 

and  Pacific    .     .     . 

196 

12 

180 

209 

61,447 

55,541 

Total     .    .     . 

1,777 

674 

1,894 

3,772 

251,028 

204,905 

APPENDIX,  347 


By  the  different  Ecclesiastical  Bodies. 

Congregational. — American  Association,  etc.    ...  lo 

American  Board 102 

American  Baptist  Union 41 

Southern  Baptist 14 

Free  Will  Baptist 4 

Canadian 2 

English  Baptist 60 

English  General  Baptist 9 

English  Independent  London  Missionary  Society  .  155 1 

English  Jews  Society 1 

—  399 
Episcopal.  —  American 19 

Canadian 2 

English  Church  Missionary  Society     .....  204 

English  Gospel  Propagation  Society 108 

London  Jews  Society 7 

—  340 
Lutheran.  —  American 4 

German 13 

—  17 
Methodist. — American 69 

American,  Southern 3 

American  United  Brethren  in  Christ 2 

English,  Wesleyan 176 

English,  United  Free 15 

English,  New  Connection 4 

English,  Lady  Huntington  Connection     ....  10 

—  279 
Moravian.  —  One  half  of  "  laborers  of  all  classes  "  .  .  153 
Presbyterian.  —  Old  School,  Board  of  Foreign  Miss.   .  71 

Old  School,  Southern 3 

Old  School,  American  Board 2 

New  School,  American  Board 43 

New  School,  at  Kolapore 1 

Carried  forward 125    1,193 

1  The  whole  ntimber,  but  some  of  them  axe  Presbyterians 


348  APPENDIX. 


Brought  forward 125   1,193 

United  Presbyterian 14 

Reformed    Presbyterian,    N.   S.,   connected    with 

Presbyterian  Board 4 

Reformed  Presbyterian,  O.  S 2 

Reformed  (Dutch) 14 

Nova  Scotia  Church       . Q 

English 9 

French 21 

German 275 

Irish 10 

Scotch,  Free 28 

Scotch,  Established 12 

Scotch,  United 46 

Welsh,  Calvinistic  Methodist 6 

—      571 

Unknown.  —  American  Association,  Christian  Union     .  13 


1,777 


SUMMABT. 

Congregational 399 

Episcopal 340 

Lutheran 17 

Methodist 279 

Moravian 158 

Presbyterian 57I 

Unknown 13 

—    1  777 


APPENDIX.  ^       349 


IX. 


SUMMARY    OF   ROMAN    CATHOLIC    MISSIONS. 

(See  Chapter  XIV.) 

[From  Schem's  "  American  and  Educational  Almanac."  Condensed 
from  a  theological  journal  published  by  the  Jesuits  in  Paris.] 

I.  Missions  of  the  Secular  Clergy.  —  Under  this  head  six 
missionary  seminaries  are  mentioned  ;  namely,  the  "  Sem- 
inaries for  Foreign  Missions,"  at  Paris,  Genoa,  Milan, 
All  Hallows'  (Ireland),  Brussels,  and  the  "  Seminary  for 
African  Missions,"  at  Lyons.  Statistics  are  given  only  of 
the  Seminary  of  Paris,  which  entertains  two  hundred  and 
sixty-four  missionaries  in  East  India,  Farther  India,  China, 
Thibet,  Corea,  and  Japan. 

II.  Missions  of  ^^  Religious  Congregations."  —  The  fol- 
lowing table  gives  the  names  of  the  Religious  Congrega- 
tions which  send  out  missionaries,  the  countries  in  which 
they  work,  and  the  aggregate  number  of  missionaries  sup- 
ported by  each :  — 

1.  Lazarists  have  missions  in  Abyssinia,  Turkey,  Greece, 
Persia,  Tripoli,  Egypt,  China,  United  States,  Brazil,  Ar- 
gentine Republic,  Chili,  Peru,  Guatemala.  Number  of 
missionaries,  340. 

2.  Picpus  Society,  in  Polynesia,  Chili,  Peru;  130. 

3.  Ohlates  of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  in  British 
America,  United  States,  Mexico,  Natal,  Ceylon  ;  236. 

4.  Marists,  in  the  United  States,  Australia,  New  Zealand, 
Polynesia;  128. 


350       ^  APPENDIX. 

5.  Congregation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  Holy  Heart  of 
Mary,  in  Western  Africa,  East  India,  French  Guiana, 
Hayti;  125. 

6.  Congregation  of  the  Holy  Gross,  in  the  United  States, 
British  America,  East  India  ;  187. 

7.  JRedemptorists,  in  the  United  States,  St.  Thomas ;  25. 

8.  MelchitaristSf  in  Turkey ;  65. 

III.  Missions  of  Monastic  Orders.  —  1 .  Franciscans,  in 
Russia,  Turkey,  China,  Egypt,  Central  Africa,  Tripoli, 
Morocco,  United  States,  Mexico,  United  States  of  Colum- 
bia, Bolivia,  Peru,  Chili,  Argentine  Republic,  the  Philip- 
pine Islands,  New  Zealand,  British  America  ;  1,384. 

2.  Dominicans,  in  Turkey,  China,  Philippine  Islands, 
and  the  United  States  ;  322. 

3.  Capuchins,  in  Turkey,  India,  Eastern  and  Central 
Africa,  Tunis ;  210. 

4.  Carmelites,  in  Turkey,  Persia,  East  India  ;  50. 

5.  Jesuits,  in  Turkey,  Greece,  India,  China,  British 
America,  United  States,  Mexico,  French  Guiana,  Ecuador, 
Guatemala,  Chili,  Brazil,  Paraguay,  Argentine  Republic, 
Philippine  Islands,  Australia ;  1,672. 

Altogether  there  are  264  missionaries  in  the  first  class 
of  missions ;  1,236  in  the  second  class ;  and  3,639  in  the 
third  class  ;  giving  a  total  of  5,138  missionaries. 

A  recent  Report  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Faith,  exhibits  the  following  report  of  receipts  and 
expenditures  for  the  year  1866  :  — 

Total  receipts,  5,145,558  francs,  or  nearly  $1,000,000. 

Of  this  sum  France  furnished  more  than  3,500,000,  Italy 
not  quite  450,000,   Belgium   nearly    100,000,    Germany 


APPENDIX,  361 

233,000,  North  America  about  190,000,  the  British  Isles 
not  quite  140,000,  Holland  only  80,000,  Switzerland  nearly 
50,000,  Portugal  about  40,000,  South  America  27,000,  and 
Spain  a  little  over  5,500. 

Not  quite  2,000,000  francs  were  appropriated  to  Asiatic 
missions,  more  than  1,000,000  each  to  America  and  Europe 
(America  taking  the  precedence  by  a  few  thousand  francs), 
nearly  500,000  to  Oceanica,  and  about  450,000  to  Africa. 


X. 


FRANCIS    XAVIER   AND    ROMISH    MISSIONS. 

(See  Chapter  XIV.) 

One  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  to  the  mission- 
ary literature  of  modern  times,  is  a  work  by  Rev.  Henry 
Venn,  B.  D.,  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  English  Church 
Missionary  Society,  entitled  "Missionary  Life  and  Labors 
of  Francis  Xavier,  taken  from  his  own  Correspondence, 
with  a  Sketch  of  the  General  Results  of  Roman  Catholic 
Missions  among  the  Heathen."  London,  1862.  It  is  to 
this  work  so  frequent  reference  is  made  in  Chapter  XIV. 
As  it  has  not  yet  been  republished  in  this  country,  the 
reader  will  be  interested  in  a  series  of  extracts,  illustrating 
the  mission  of  the  great  Romish  missionary,  and  going  to 
strengthen  the  positions  taken  in  the  chapter  on  the 
Romish  Missions. 

Materials  for  the  History  of  Romish  Missions.  —  "  Our 
information  of  Roman  Catholic  missions  is  very  meagre 
and  unsatisfactory.    The  sources  of  information  are  either 


352  APPENDIX. 

various  collections  of  letters  of  missionaries,  or  dry  com- 
pilations from  those  letters.  But  these  sources  of  informa- 
tion cannot  satisfy  any  one  who  desires  a  clear  knowledge 
of  this  subject.  He  will  seek  for  histories  of  missions 
written  from  the  field  of  labor  by  the  laborers  themselves, 
or  by  those  who  have  witnessed  the  work  abroad ;  or  the 
journals  and  collected  letters  of  individual  missionaries. 
Since  missions  were  taken  up  in  earnest  by  the  Protestant 
Church,  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  press,  in 
England  and  America,  has  teemed  with  such  missionary 
histories  and  biographies.  Numerous  volumes  have  been 
written  by  missionaries  themselves,  or  by  their  relatives 
and  others.  In  such  books  we  see  the  living  man  and  his 
real  work.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  my  attention  was  turned 
to  the  subject  of  Romish  missions,  I  sought  out  for  some 
such  authentic  biographies,  memoirs,  or  histories  of  Romish 
missionaries.  Wherever  I  inquired,  the  Life  of  Xavier  was 
presented  to  me,  and  no  second  work  of  that  class  could  be 
named.  I  searched  public  libraries  and  booksellers'  shops 
without  success.  I  made  inquiries  personally  at  the  head- 
quarters of  Romish  missionaries  in  France,  namely,  the 
Institute  of  the  Faith  at  Lyons,  but  was  assured  that  the 
Life  of  Xavier  was  the  only  biography  of  any  authority ; 
the  same  answer  was  returned  to  a  friend,  who  made  the 
inquiry  at  the  College  of  the  '  Propaganda '  at  Rome ;  and 
my  friend  was  further  informed,  that  it  was  contrary  to  the 
principles  of  the  Romish  Church  to  permit  the  unauthor- 
ized publication  of  the  personal  history  of  its  missionaries. 
"  I  was  hence  led  to  study  the  Life  of  Xavier  as  the  only 
authentic  source  from  which  an  internal  view  of  the  life 
and  labors  of  a  Romish  missionary  can  be  obtained. 


APPENDIX.  353 

"  The  Life  of  Xavier  has  another  title  to  consideration. 
Many  prevailing  sentiments  of  the  present  day,  even  in 
Protestant  countries,  respecting  missions,  find  their  counter- 
part in  some  of  the  most  striking  features  in  the  history  of 
Francis  Xavier,  such  as  a  craving  for  the  romance  of  mis- 
sions ;  the  notion  that  an  autocratic  power  is  wanted  in  a 
mission,  such  as  a  missionary  bishop  might  exercise  ;  a  de- 
mand for  a  degree  of  self-denial  in  a  missionary  bordering 
on  asceticism.  These,  and  many  such  sentiments,  are 
often  illustrated  by  a  reference  to  the  life  and  success  of 
Xavier.  The  delusive  character  of  such  sentiments  cannot 
fail  to  appear  on  a  careful  study  of  the  truth  of  Xavier's 
history."  —  Preface,  pp.  i.-iii. 

Xavier's  Converts.  —  "It  will  not  escape  the  notice  of 
an  intelligent  Christian,  that,  in  the  elaborate  description 
which  Xavier  gives  of  his  conversions,  there  is  no  reference 
to  the  divine  power  on  the  hearts  of  individuals.  Xavier's 
favorite  expression  is,  '  I  have  made  so  many  Christians ' 
('Feci  Christianas'),  when  he  had  baptized  infants,  or 
taught  adults  to  repeat  the  prescribed  formulas.  Even 
when  he  introduces  a  notice  of  the  divine  power,  it  is  often 
in  a  way  which  exalts  human  agency,  rather  than  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Spirit."  —  Page  38. 

"  All  his  hopes  of  success  rested  upon  the  incessant  in- 
culcation of  dry  formularies,  and  in  the  strictness  and 
severity  of  external  discipline.  This  was  the  whole  of  the 
work,  according  to  his  limited  views  of  true  religion.  But 
such  nominal  and  deficient  Christianity  can  never  bring 
men  out  of  heathenism,  or,  at  least,  enable  them  to  stand 
in  the  day  of  trial.  Xavier  had  light  enough  to  see  this. 
23 


354  APPENDIX. 

His  early  acquaintance  with  Protestants  seems  to  have  left 
on  his  mind  traces  of  spiritual  truth,  which  soon  dissatisfied 
him  with  the  result  of  his  teaching,  and  made  him  tremble 
with  apprehension  for  the  house  he  had  '  built  on  the 
sand.' "  —  Page  39. 

Xavier's  Ideas  of  Expiation.  —  "  He  says  to  Mansilla : 
*  God  give  you  patience,  which  is  the  first  requisite  in  deal- 
ing with  this  nation.^  Imagine  to  yourself  that  you  are  in 
purgatory,  and  that  you  are  washing  away  the  guilt  of  your 
evil  deeds.  Acknowledge  the  singular  mercy  of  God  in 
granting  you  the  opportunity  for  expiating  the  sins  of  your 
youth  while  you  live  and  breathe,  which  may  now  be  ac- 
complished by  the  merit  of  grace,  and  at  a  far  less  cost 
of  suffering  than  in  the  world  to  come.'  This  idea  of  the 
efficacy  of  the  sufferings  in  this  life,  when  endured  for 
God's  glory,  to  diminish  the  pains  of  purgatory  in  the  next 
life,  strange  as  it  appears  to  any  one  who  takes  his  religion 
from  the  Bible,  is  a  favorite  notion  with  Xavier,  and  with 
Romish  writers  of  his  class."  —  Page  49. 

Xavierh  Use  of  the  Civil  Power.  —  "Severe  and  magis- 
terial threats  were  not  unusual  in  Xavier's  correspond- 
ence. In  one  of  his  letters,  the  Portuguese  Governor  of 
Tuticorin,  who  had  opposed  Xavier  himself,  and  oppressed 
the  native  Christians,  is  threatened  with  the  Inquisition. 
'  Tell  him  that  I  will  write  to  Prince  Henry,  the  President 
of  the  Inquisition  at  Lisbon,  to  put  the  utmost  rigors  of 
that  ecclesiastical  court  in  force  against  him  as  a  hinderer 
of  the  gospel.'    In  the  same  letter  he  enjoins  Mansilla  to 

1  He  is  speaking  of  India. 


APPENDIX.  •  355 

keep  a  sharp  and  careful  watch  over  the  native  Malabar 
teachers  (clerici)  associated  with  him,  saying,  '  If  you  detect 
anything  wrong  in  them,  restrain  them,  for  God's  sake,  and 
punish  them  instantly  and  severely ;  for  we  shall  have  to 
bear  a  dreadful  load  of  guilt,  which  many  stripes  will  hardly 
serve  to  expiate,  if  we  neglect  to  use  the  plenary  power 
committed  to  us,  carrying  it  like  a  sword  in  a  scabbard, 
instead  of  punishing  oflfenses  against  God,  especially  such 
as  are  a  stumbling-block  to  the  multitude.' "  —  Page  54. 

He  thus  wrote  to  the  King  of  Portugal  from  Cochin, 
January  20,  1548 :  "I  very  earnestly  desire  that  you  should 
take  an  oath,  invoking  most  solemnly  the  name  of  God, 
that  in  case  any  governor  thus  neglects  to  spread  the  faith, 
he  shall,  on  his  return  to  Portugal,  be  punished  by  close 
imprisonment  for  many  years,  and  all  his  goods  and  pos- 
sessions shall  be  sold,  and  devoted  to  works  of  charity.  In 
order  that  none  may  flatter  themselves  that  this  is  but  an 
idle  threat,  you  must  declare  as  plainly  as  possible  that 
you  will  accept  no  excuses  that  may  be  offered ;  but  that 
the  only  way  of  escaping  your  wrath,  and  obtaining  your 
favor,  is  to  make  as  many  Christians  as  possible  in  the 
countries  over  which  they  rule. 

"  I  could  give  many  instances  to  prove  the  necessity  of 
this,  but  I  will  not  weary  your  Majesty  by  what  would  only 
be  the  recital  of  my  past  and  present  anitieties,  undergone 
without  any  hope  of  reward.  I  will  only  assert  this  much  : 
if  every  viceroy  and  governor  be  fully  persuaded  that  you 
have  bound  yourself  by  oath  to  do  this,  and  that  you  will 
perform  all  that  you  have  threatened,  the  whole  island  of 
Ceylon,  many  kings  of  the  Malabar  coast,  and  the  whole 
promontory  of  Comorin,  will  embrace  the  religion  of  Christ 


356  •  APPENDIX. 

in  a  single  year.  But  so  long  as  the  viceroys  and  gov- 
ernors are  not  urged  by  the  fear  of  disgrace  and  fine  to 
make  many  Christians,  your  Majesty  must  not  hope  that 
the  preaching  of  the  gospel  will  meet  with  great  success  in 
India ;  or  that  many  will  be  brought  to  baptism,  or  make 
any  progress  in  religion.  The  only  reason  why  every  man 
in  India  does  not  acknowledge  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and 
profess  his  holy  doctrine,  is  the  fact,  that  the  viceroy  or 
governor  who  neglects  to  make  this  his  care  receives  no 
punishment  from  your  Majesty."  —  Page  161. 

Xavier  as  a  Christian  Missionary,  —  "We  have  thus 
brought  to  a  close  the  first  period  of  Xavier's  labors  in  the 
East,  namely,  the  three  years  spent  in  South  India.  This 
review  cannot  but  leave  upon  the  mind  a  strong  conviction 
of  Xavier's  inconsistency  of  character.  He  was  a  man  of 
strong  impulses,  of  quick  transitions  of  feeling,  liable  to 
pass  from  extravagant  hope  to  unreasonable  despair.  This 
we  conceive  to  be  the  solution  of  the  contradictions  in  his 
letters.  He  probably  wrote  from  the  impulse  of  the  mo- 
ment. He  lacked,  in  fact,  that  stable  confidence  in  the 
enterprise  he  had  taken  in  hand,  which  every  true  mission- 
ary derives  from  a  supreme  regard  to  the  word  of  God.  It 
is  impossible  otherwise  to  reconcile  his  sudden  abandon- 
ment of  India,  after  so  short  and  imperfect  a  trial,  with  his 
previous  professions  of  spiritual  comfort  and  success  in  his 
work,  —  or  his  sublime  appeals  to  men  of  learning  and 
science  in  the  universities  of  Europe  to  become  his  asso- 
ciates, with  the  fact  that  his  chief  comfort  was  the  baptism 
of  moribund  infants,  and  the  dumb  show  of  a  crowd  of 
adult  worshippers.  It  is  impossible  also  to  reconcile,  on 
Christian  principles,  the  various  offices  which  he  attempted 


APPENDIX.  357 

to  sustain.  At  one  time  he  was  the  preacher  of  love  and 
peace ;  at  another  the  agent  of  the  cruel  and  accursed  In- 
quisition ;  at  another  the  instigator  of  a  crusade.  Compare 
the  two  pictures.  See  Xavier  on  the  Fishery  Coast,  toiling 
in  the  instruction  of  Christian  neophytes,  and  professing  to 
find  his  chief  joy  in  divine  consolations ;  he  appears  as  an 
apostle.  See  Xavier  at  Negapatam,  on  the  look-out  for 
the  earliest  intelligence  of  a  hostile  and  murderous  expedi- 
tion, which  he  himself  had  instigated,  for  the  advancement 
of  true  religion  :  in  what  did  his  spirit  then  differ  from  that 
of  a  Mussulman  ? 

"  It  will  not,  indeed,  be  fair  to  judge  Xavier  altogether 
by  the  standard  of  the  primitive  church,  or  of  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  of  the  present  day.  We  must  not  forget  that 
he  belonged  to  a  church  which  canonized  Charlemagne." 
—  Page  78. 

"  Upon  reviewing  Xavier's  character,  it  will  appear  that 
he  possessed  in  a  very  high  degree  some  of  the  essential 
qualities  of  the  leader  of  a  great  enterprise.  He  was  of  a 
generous,  noble,  and  loving  disposition,  calculated  to  gather 
followers,  and  to  attach  them  firmly  to  his  leadership.  But 
in  respect  of  missions,  Xavier  was  little  fitted  to  direct 
others.  Of  the  peculiar  duties  of  an  evangelist  to  the 
heathen,  he  had  no  conception.  His  directions  to  his  mis- 
sionaries are  wholly  addressed  to  their  conduct  as  pastors 
of  Christian  communities.  In  his  voluminous  '  Instruc- 
tions,' all  that  can  be  gathered  of  missionary  directions 
amounts  to  little  beyond  the  general  relations  of  the  clergy 
with  their  flocks,  with  each  other,  and  with  their  ecclesias- 
tical superiors. 


358  APPENDIX. 

"Even  if  Xavier  had  better  understood  the  work  of 
missions,  there  was  one  great  fault  in  his  system,  which 
would  have  proved  fatal  to  success.  He  attempted  to  carry 
everything  by  authority.  He  constantly  inculcated  the 
supreme  merit  and  advantage  of  implicit  obedience  to  him- 
self. The  sequel  of  his  history  will  show  how  completely 
this  system  failed  to  form  an  efficient  body  of  coadjutors. 
Xavier's  history  will,  therefore,  afford  a  useful  caution 
against  a  notion,  too  much  countenanced  at  the  present 
day,  that  an  ecclesiastical  head  of  a  mission  is  needed  to 
secure  efficiency  by  uniformity  of  action,  and  to  counteract 
the  evils  which  may  arise  within  a  mission  from  the  con- 
trariety of  individual  opinions.  Such  absolute  power  may 
consist  with  the  government  of  a  settled  Christian  church, 
where  the  relation  between  ecclesiastical  authority  and  the 
pastoral  function  has  been  defined  by  canons,  and  by  ex- 
perience. But  no  canons  or  regulations  have  yet  been  laid 
down  for  missions  to  the  heathen.  That  work  is  so  varied, 
and  its  emergencies  are  so  sudden,  that  the  evangelist  must 
be  left  to  act  mainly  on  his  own  responsibility  and  judg- 
ment. It  preeminently  requires  independence  of  mind, 
fertility  of  resource,  a  quick  observance  of  the  footsteps  of 
Divine  Providence,  a  readiness  to  push  forward  in  that 
direction,  an  abiding  sense  in  the  mind  of  the  missionary 
of  personal  responsibility  to  extend  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
and  a  lively  conviction  that  the  Lord  is  at  his  •  right  hand.' 
These  qualifications  are,  like  all  the  finer  sentiments  of 
Christianity,  of  delicate  texture ;  they  are  oflen  united 
with  a  natural  sensitiveness  ;  they  are  to  be  cherished  and 
counseled,  rather  than  ruled ;  they  are  easily  checked  and 
discouraged,  if  *  headed '  by  authority.     Yet  these  are  the 


APPENDIX.  859 

qualities  which  have  ever  distinguished  the  missionaries 
who  win  the  richest  trophies,  and  advance  the  borders  of 
the  Kedeemer's  kingdom.  Among  such  a  body  of  work- 
men no  formidable  difficulties  will  arise  from  the  contrariety 
of  individual  opinions ;  and  such  as  do  arise  will  be  easily 
composed  by  aifectionate,  Christian,  and  wise  counsels, 
whether  offered  on  the  spot,  or  transmitted  from  Europe." 
—  Page  145. 

Xavier^s  Estimate  of  his  Success  in  India.  —  "In  a  letter 
to  a  brother  missionary  in  Travancore,  he  writes,  Decem- 
ber, 1548 : '  If  you  will,  in  imagination,  search  through  India, 
you  will  find,  that  few  will  reach  heaven,  either  of  whites  or 
blacks,  except  those  who  depart  this  life  under  fourteen 
years  of  age,  with  their  baptismal  innocence  still  upon 
them.'"  —  Pa^e  156. 

"  The  confession  of  the  failure  of  the  work  of  Romish 
missionaries  in  India  is  rendered  still  more  manifest,  by  a 
proposal  which  Xavier  made  to  the  King  of  Portugal.  He 
solemnly  proposed  that  the  conversion  of  India  should  be 
taken  out  of  the  hands  of  missionaries,  and  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  civil  authorities !  "  —  Page  157. 

Xavier  as  compared  with  Protestant  Missionaries.  —  "  We 
often  hear  the  name  of  Xavier  put  forth  as  a  great  hero,  to 
the  disparagement  of  Protestant  missionaries.  Reduce  his 
history  to  its  true  dimensions,  and  Protestant  missions  have 
no  need  to  shun  a  comparison.  His  pretensions  fall  short 
of  those  of  Samuel  Marsden  and  his  two  European  cate- 
chists  in  New  Zealand,  spending  their  first  Sunday  amidst 


860  APPENDIX. 

a  crowd  of  warlike  cannibals,  upon  a  coast  which  had  been 
shunned  for  many  previous  years  by  every  merchant  ship  ; 
or  of  Henry  Martyn,  the  solitary  witness  for  the  word  of 
Christ  in  Shiraz,  disputing  with  the  most  learned  Moham- 
medans in  their  own  tongue,  and  winning  their  admiration 
for  his  person,  notwithstanding  their  bitter  enmity  to  his 
religion ;  or  of  Williams,  in  his  visits  to  the  islands  of  the 
Pacific,  where  no  European  before  himself  had  landed, 
and  persevering  in  his  efforts  to  impart  to  them  the  gospel 
of  Christ,  till  his  life  was  sacrificed  at  their  hands  ;  or  of 
Judson  in  the  prisons  of  Burmah ;  or  of  many  other  names 
which  might  be  selected  from  the  list  of  Protestant  mis- 
sionary heroes.  And  when  this  list  shall  be  exhausted,  we 
have  a  reserve  of  heroic  deeds  in  a  class  which  has  no  ex- 
istence in  the  Church  of  Rome.  Let  us  compare  Xavier 
with  the  missionary's  wife,  Rosine  Krapf,  who  accompanied 
her  husband.  Dr.  Krapf,  into  the  heart  of  Abyssinia, 
shared  his  flight  when  expelled  through  the  intrigues  of 
Romanists,  reentered  with  him  the  wilderness  of  Shoho 
to  regain  the  province  of  Tigr^,  though  with  the  prospect 
before  her  of  the  birth  of  her  first-born  child  in  that  wil- 
derness. See  her  comforting  her  husband  under  the  shade 
of  a  wilderness  tree,  as  he  took  the  dying  babe  in  his  arms 
to  dedicate  it  to  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  Hear 
her,  while  he  hesitated  for  a  name,  pronounce  the  Amharic 
term  for  *  a  tear ! '  And  then  she  was  forced  by  the  sav- 
age natives  to  pursue  her  journey  after  three  days'  rest. 
See  the  same  valiant  lady  accompanying  her  husband 
through  the  perils  of  shipwreck  in  native  boats,  till  they 
reached  the  more  civilized  settlement  of  Mombas,  an  island 
lying  off  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  as  Sancian  lies  off  the 


APPENDIX.  361 

coast  of  China,  each  island  within  sight  of  the  land  sought 
to  be  evangelized.  There  listen  to  the  last  accents  of  this 
genuine  female  missionary,  while  sinking  into  the  arms  of 
death,  enjoining  her  husband  to  carry  her  body  to  the  op- 
posite continent  of  Africa,  and  to  bury  her  on  the  sea-shore, 
that  the  pagan  Wanikas,  who  passed  by  her  tomb,  might 
be  reminded  of  the  object  which  had  brought  her  to  that 
country;  and  that  her  grave  might  be  the  starting-point 
for  future  missionaries  to  carry  the  light  of  the  gospel 
through  the  Galla  country  into  inhospitable  Abyssinia. 
How  does  the  romance  of  Xavier's  last  scene  at  Sancian, 
off  the  coast  of  China,  and  of  the  transfer  of  his  remains  to 
the  chapel  at  Goa,  sink  in  the  presence  of  this  parallel 
story  of  a  missionary's  heroic  wife  !  "  —  Page  255. 

Failure  of  the  Romish  Missions.  —  "  The  historical  review 
now  given  will  establish  the  conclusion,  that  the  brightest 
prospects  and  the  most  confident  hopes  of  Romish  mis- 
sions to  the  heathen  have  vanished  sooner  or  later,  by  one 
catastrophe  or  another  ;  that  they  have  not  contained  with- 
in themselves  the  principles  of  permanent  vitality.  Where 
they  are  not  upheld  by  the  sword,  they  are  overborne  by 
opposition.  Their  apparent  success  for  a  time  has  been 
the  result  of  favorable  wordly  circumstances ;  and  when 
those  circumstances  have  changed,  the  mission  has  come 
to  nothing.  This  conclusion  is  based  upon  the  history  of 
three  centuries ;  during  the  greater  part  of  which  period 
the  Church  of  Rome  had  the  fields  to  itself  Rome  put 
forth  missionary  agencies  to  reap  them  far  more  numerous 
than  the  Protestant  Church  has  yet  been  able  to  command. 
But  Rome  failed  to  gather  in  the  harvest,  and  the  fields 


362  APPENDIX. 

are  all  now  still  iinreaped,  and  open  for  the  entrance  of 
Protestant  evangelists.  Romanists  boast  of  Francis  Xavier 
as  the  apostle  of  the  Indies  ;  they  erect  altars  and  chapels 
for  his  worship ;  they  invoke  his  aid  in  their  missionary 
efforts  ;  and  *  verily  they  have  their  reward.'  The  blight 
of  Xavier's  missionary  principles  has  rested  upon  them  ever 
since;  and  the  disappointment  which  pursued  Xavier  to 
his  last  breath  has  been  the  portion  of  many  a  sincere, 
able,  and  zealous  Romish  missionary."  —  Page  319. 

The  Japanese  Mission.  —  "  The  mission,  after  Xavier's 
death,  was  carried  on  with  great  vigor,  and  was  abundantly 
supplied  with  laborers,  other  denominations  besides  the 
Jesuits  entering  upon  the  field.  Vast  numbers  of  the 
natives  are  reported  to  have  professed  the  Christian  faith, 
but  I  have  in  vain  sought  for  any  reliable  accounts  of  these 
successes.  No  such  contemporary  history  or  biographies 
exist  of  the  Japanese  mission  as  the  letters  of  Xavier.  I 
have  looked  into  various  collections  of  Epistolae  Japonicae, 
but,  like  the  Epistolae  Indicae,  they  are  filled  with  legends  ; 
and  it  is  impossible,  after  reading  Xavier's  letters,  to  open 
those  pages  without  the  conviction  that  we  have  passed  out 
of  the  regions  of  truth  into  those  of  exaggeration,  supres- 
sion,  and  fiction.  At  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a 
fierce  and  bloody  persecution  commenced  against  Chris- 
tianity, on  the  part  of  the  political  emperor,  upon  the  old 
plea  of  persecutors,  that  the  peace  of  the  state  was  endan- 
gered. From  the  great  number  of  influential  persons  said 
to  have  been  involved  in  this  persecution,  it  may  be  in- 
ferred that  the  profession  of  Christianity  had  been  widely 
extended ;  and  from  the  length  of  time,  amounting  to  forty 


APPENDIX.  863 

years,  for  which  the  struggle  was  continued,  it  is  evident 
that  multitudes  firmly  held  to  their  adopted  faith.  In  the 
year  1637,  the  reigning  emperor  discovered,  as  he  affirmed, 
a  traitorous  correspondence  for  dethroning  him,  between 
the  native  Christians  and  the  King  of  Portugal.  He  there 
fore  issued  orders  for  the  butchery  of  the  remnant  of  Chris- 
tians, estimated  at  37,000.  This  order  was  barbarously 
carried  into  effect.  Thus  the  mission  planted  by  Xavier 
was  extinguished  in  blood,  afler  existing  for  nearly  ninety 
years  ;  and  this  through  the  political  power  on  which  Xavier 
had  leaned  in  all  his  missionary  enterprises."  —  Page  209, 


INDEX. 


Abeel,  David,  mention  of,  257. 

Aboriginal  Races,  why  receiving  so 
much  attention,  232. 

Abyssinia,  Komish  mission  to,  279. 

Africa,  Western,  how  to  be  evangel- 
ized, 216;  successes  in,  239. 
Southern,  missionary  explorers  in, 
201;  how  far  occupied  by  mis- 
sionaries, 208;  success  of  mis- 
sions in,  240. 

Africaner,  a  robber  chief,  241;  his 
conversion,  242. 

Agency,  human  and  divine,  as  seen 
in  missions,  194. 

Aintab,  churches,  130 ;  successes,  245. 

America,  North,  explorations  across, 
199. 
South,  exploration  of,  199. 

American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions,  why  it  was 
formed  as  it  was,  26. 

Anthropological  Society,  reference 
to,  198. 

Antioch,  early  importance  of  its 
church,  38 ;  ritualistic  influences, 
59 ;  how  counteracted,  40. 

Apostles,  they  were  missionaries,  29 ; 
repositories  of  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority, 35 ;  why  so  long  in  Je- 
rusalem, 34 ;  distribution  of  their 
labors,  34 ;  had  no  successors  as 
such,  116. 

Apostolic  Age,  a  missionary  age,  30; 
remarks  upon,  41. 
Missions,  the  model  for  missions, 
29:  characteristics,   45-60;  ex- 


tent, 44 ;  compared  with  modem 
missions,  94. 

Armenians,  success  among,  245. 

Asia,  problems  to  be  settled  in,  3; 
how  opened  to  the  gospel,  3- 
14;  how  far  explored  by  mis- 
sionaries, 200 ;  and  occupied  by 
them,  203. 

Associations,  Ecclesiastical,  not  men- 
tioned in  the  New  Testament, 
56. 

Ballentine,  Henry,  mention  of, 
257. 

Baptismal  Regeneration,  in  Romish 
missions,  287,  288. 

Barrows,  Dr.  Wm.,  quoted,  285. 

Bartimeus,  native  preacher  at  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  136. 

Benevolent  Societies,  as  they  were  in 
1820,  333. 

Bible,  how  far  translated  and  pub- 
lished, 211. 

Bird,  Isaac,  mention  of,  203. 

Bishops,  Irish,  misapprehension  con- 
cerning, 75. 

Boniface,  mention  of,  81. 

Books  and  Tracts,  in  languages  of 
the  unevangelized,  213. 

Brahminism,  success  in  the  empire 
of,  235. 

Brahmo  Samaj,  description  of,  319. 

Brigham,  John  C,  explorations  of, 
in  South  America,  199. 

British  Missions,  error  concerning 
early,  66. 


366 


INDEX. 


Burgundy,  mission  of  Columbanus 
in,  77. 

California,  how  saved  to  the  Unit- 
ed States,  200. 

Campbell,  Rev.  Mr.,  mention  of,  201. 

Carey,  Rev.  Dr.,  mention  of,  8. 

Cherokee  Indians,  success  among, 
220. 

Children  of  the  Church,  how  thej' 
should  be  trained,  175. 

Children  of  Missionaries,  providen- 
tial care  of,  150-153. 

China,  how  opened  to  the  gospel,  6 ; 
destruction  of  opium,  6 :  remark- 
able treaty,  7 ;  progress  of  mis- 
sions, 230. 

Choctaw  Indians,  success  among, 
220. 

Christendom,  providential  changes 
in,  17. 

Christian  Character,  proposed  revis- 
ion in  treatises  on,  191. 

Christian  Life,  intellectual,  slowly 
developed  in  the  Apostolic  Age, 
42. 

Christian  Powers,  remarkable  combi- 
nation of  the,  7. 

Christians,  nominal,  number  of,  246. 
real,  why  no  more  interested  in 
Christ's  kingdom,  172. 

Church,  an  uprising,  16-28;    great 
changes,  16;    developments    of 
missionary  spirit  and  organiza- 
tion, 18 ;  will  not  retire  ignomin- 
iously  from  the  field,  309. 
Apostolic,  its  development,  30-33, 
41;  the  idea  of  it  lost,  17,  49; 
its  importance,  49 ;  its  recovery, 
17. 
the   Christian,  its  tardy  develop- 
ment, 30-40,  55;  true  idea  of, 
31 ;  when  and  how  its  constitu- 
tion was  settled,  41. 
Edifices,  why  not  compete  with  the 
Jesuits  in  these,  292;  costly,  a 


hindrance  in  evangelical    mis- 
sions, 293. 
Members,  number  of,  246. 
the  Mission,  its  nature,  110. 

Church  of  Scotland,  discussion  in  its 
General  Assembly,  21. 

Churches,  the,  will  keep  the  field, 
309. 
how  large  a  proportion  contribute 
to  missions,  171 ;  their  claims  on 
the  ministry,  248. 
Local,  among  the  chief  agencies 
in  missions,  110;   the  only  nu- 
clei   for    permanent    congrega- 
tions, 110.    See  Preface. 
Native,  should  engage  in  missions, 
105;  be  self-governed,  and  self- 
supported,  112;  value    of,  120- 
144;  number  of,  246. 
Primitive,  character  of,  57. 
St.  Paul's  dealing  with,  101. 

Church-membership,  extreme  views 
of,  39. 

Civil  Governments,  reliance  on,  in 
missions,  283. 

Civilization,  its  influence  on  modern 
missions,  94,  98,  101;  whether 
precede  Christianity,  96 ;  not  the 
proper  test  of  success,  118. 

Clive,  Lord,  mention  of,  8. 

Coan,  Titus,  mention  of,  263. 

Coles,  success  among  the,  233. 

Colleges,  when  a  call  for  them  in 
missions,  100. 

Columba,  his  mission  to  Scotland, 
75,  76. 

Columbanus,  his  mission  to  conti- 
nental Europe,  75,  76-79. 

Columbia  River,  how  saved  to  the 
United  States,  200. 

Commandoes,  in  South  Africa,  how 
broken  up,  241. 

Conferences,  Ecclesiastical,  not  men- 
tioned in  the  N.  T.,  56. 

Congregational  Churches,  as  they 
were  sixty  years  ago,  26. 


INDEX. 


36^ 


Congregationalism,  notion  of,  by 
early  writers,  147. 

Connecticut,  churches  in,  mention 
of,  171. 

Consociations,  Ecclesiastical,  not 
mentioned  in  the  N.  T.,  56. 

Contributions  for  Foreign  Missions, 
progress  in,  214. 

Conversion  of  the  World,  never  be- 
fore aimed  at,  1 ;  why  regarded 
as  practicable,  92. 

Converts,  native,  their  value  illus- 
trated,    121-131  ;     resembling 
those  of  ancient  times,  128. 
East  Indian,  their  firmness,  13. 

Council  at  Jerusalem,  improperly  so 
called,  40. 

Crowther,  Dr.,  a  negro  missionary 
and  bishop,  239. 

Culbertson,  Dr.,  mention  of,  257. 

Culdees,  why  the  name  is  not  used, 
75. 

Dakota    Indians,   success    among, 

221. 
Danish  Mission,  referred  to,  19. 
D'Aubigne,  Dr.,  his  error  concerning 

Irish  missions,  64,  66. 
Dickinson,  Austin,  influence  of  on 

secular  newspapers,  197,  316. 
Diplomacy,  change  in,  8. 
Dubois,  Abbe,  quoted,  278. 
Dwight,  H.  G.  O.,  explorations  of, 

200;  influence  of,  263. 

East  India  Company,  when  char- 
tered, 3;  beginning  and  extent 
of  its  empire,  4;  needed  a  high- 
way to  England,  4 ;  Turkey  thus 
opened  to  missions,  5;  in  part- 
nership with  idolatry,  9;  con- 
strained to  admit  missionaries, 
12 ;  its  subversion,  8, 14. 

Ebrard,  quoted,  81. 

Ecclesiastical     Bodies,     why    give 


more  time  to  the  benevolent  op- 
erations of  the  Church,  183. 

Economy,  its  progress  in  missions. 
208. 

Education,  its  place  in  missions,  100, 
113;  its  necessity,  113;  unrea- 
sonable claim  for  it,  160;  view 
of  it  from  an  East  India  stand- 
point, 321-325. 

England,  missionary  controversy,  11 ; 
state  of  feeling  in  its  government, 
11 ;  force  of  public  opinion,  12. 

English  Language,  use  of  in  mis- 
sions, 98. 

English  Mission  Schools,  reference 
to,  117,  317. 

Evangelical  Church,  missionary  or- 
ganizations in,  22,  24;  not  left  to 
faith  alone,  308. 

Evangelists,  primitive,  were  mission- 
aries, 30. 

Facts  and  Lights,  an  inflow  of 
from  heathen  world  upon  the 
churches,  172. 

Faith  in  God,  a  grand  desideratum, 
95. 

Fathers  of  New  England,  their  faint 
conception  of  duty  to  the  hea- 
then, 173. 

Feejee  Islands,  success  on,  228. 

Females,  influence  of  pious,  55. 

Fisk,  Pliny,  mention  of,  203. 

Foreign  Missions,  their  origin  in 
England,  19  ;  in  the  United 
States,  25;  how  rendered  more 
effective,  107. 

France,  struggle  with  in  India,  4; 
protector  of  Roman  Catholics 
in  Turkey,  5. 

France  and  Russia,  their  influence  in 
Turkey,  4. 

Funds,  why  more  effective  now,  118. 

Gallus,  his  mission  in  Switzerland, 
79. 


INDEX. 


General  Assembly,  singular  discus- 
sion in  the  Scottish,  21. 

Gentile  Christian  Church,  when  and 
how  its  constitution  was  settled, 
41. 
Converts,  backwardness  of  the 
Apostles  to  receive  them  as  such, 
33. 

Germany,  first  Christianized  by  Irish 
missionaries,  80. 

Goodell,  William,  mention  of,  203, 
256. 

Gospel,  the,  applicable  to  all  false  re- 
ligions, 118 ;  in  how  many  places 
taking  root,  246. 
Message,  how  brought  home  to  the 
people,  160. 

Gregory  VII.,  his  ideas  of  worship, 
286. 

Grout,  Aldin,  mention  of,  263. 

Hall,  Gordon,  his  method  for  con- 
verting the  world,  93 ;  remarks 
upon,  93. 

Harpoot,  value  of  a  church  in,  129. 

Havelock,  General,  mention  of,  5. 

Heathen,  not  saved  without  the  gos- 
pel, 188;  those  of  low  position 
reached  most  easily,  232. 

Hindrances  at  Home,  illustrated, 
169-192. 

Holy  Scriptures,  use  of  in  missions, 
284. 

Home  Missionarj'-  Spirit,  of  the  same 
nature  with  the  foreign,  18; 
weak,  standing  alone  as  a  mo- 
tive power,  106. 

Hume,  misstatement  concerning  Ire- 
land, 63. 

Hyde,  Henry  H.,  endowment  of  lec- 
tureship.   See  Preface. 

Idea  of  a  Christian  Church,  its  early 

development,  30. 
India,  its  importance,  2;  problems 

in,  2;  discovery  of  way  to,  3; 


how  opened  to  the  gospel,  8-14; 
great  mutiny  in,  13;  how  far 
occupied,  204;  steadfastness  of 
native  converts,  127. 

Indians,  North  American,  early  mis- 
sions to,  23 ;  successful  missions 
among,  219,  223. 

Infidel  Philosophy,  what  it  is  doing, 
192. 

Inflow  of  Facts  and  Lights,  from  the 
outer  world,  172. 

Information,  want  of,  the  great  hin- 
drance to  foreign  missions,  169 ; 
how  evil  is  to  be  removed,  172. 

Intellectual  Christian  Life,  slowly  de- 
veloped in  the  apostolic  age,  42. 

lona,  convent  of,  founded  b}'  an  Irish 
missionary,  67,  76,  85. 

Ireland,  a  refuge  for  the  church,  68 ; 
its  schools,  74  ;  characterized, 
74  ;  decline,  86  ;  unconnected 
with  Eome  until  the  12th  cen- 
turj-,  87. 

Irish  Missionaries,  number,  78,  80  ; 
doctrines,  81,  82. 
Missions  in  the  Early  Ages,  an  in- 
teresting subject,  62;  mistakes 
concerning,  63 ;  account  of,  67- 
90 ;  connection  with  the  German 
Reformation,  68,  85 ;  defects,  82 ; 
important  inferences,  89. 

Islands  of  the  Pacific,  success  on, 
224 ;  interest  in  the  missions,  224. 

Italy,  reference  to,  14. 

Japan,  opening  to  missions,  8;  the 
Romish  mission  to,  362. 

Jerusalem,  why  the  apostles  so  long 
there,  34;  important  meeting 
at,  40. 

Jesuits,  reference  to,  199 ;  their  rise, 
271;  suppressed,  272;  restored, 
272 ;  their  government,  273. 

Johnson,  Rev.  W.  A.  B.,  remarkable 
success  of  in  Sierra  Leone,  121. 

Jowett,  Mr.,  researches  of,  203. 


INDEX. 


369 


Jiljlaizing  Christians,  troublesome  in 
the  early  churches,  33,  39. 

Karens,  success  among,  131,  231, 

232. 
Krapf,  Mrs.,  example  of,  360. 

Laws  of  Social  Life,  how  operating, 
172. 

Lectures  on  Foreign  Missions,  insti- 
tution of  at  Andover.  See  Pref- 
ace. 

Livingstone,  Dr.,  mention  of,  201. 

London  Missionary  Society,  its  suc- 
cess in  the  South  Pacific,  226. 

Lowndes,  Rev.  Isaac,  mention  of, 
203. 

Lowrie,  Dr.  J.  C,  quoted,  346. 

McLauchlan,  Rev.  Mr.,  his  error 
concerning  Irish  missions,  65. 

Macleod,  Dr.  Norman,  extract  from 
his  speech,  313 ;  referred  to,  321. 

Madagascar,  success  of  mission  in, 
124-127,  238. 

Marash,  churches  in,  130 ;  success 
at,  245. 

Marriage  of  Missionaries,  why  de- 
sirable, 149, 166. 

Massachusetts,  churches  in,  mention 
of,  171. 

Messiah's  Reign,  Jewish  notion  of, 
31 ;  as  contemplated  by  St.  Paul, 
32;  ideas  underlying,  32. 

Miller,  Rev.  William,  quoted,  321. 

Mind  in  India,  breaking  from  an- 
cient influences,  237. 

Ministers,  Gospel,  object  the  same 
in  all  departments  of  labor,  118 ; 
responsible  alike,  267. 
Young,  claims    of  missions    on, 
248-268. 

Ministry,  native,  its  value,  131-140. 

Misapprehensions  and  Objections  re- 
lating to  foreign  missions,  185- 
190. 


Mission  Churches,  like  those  of  the 
apostolic  age,  128 ;  how  far  able 
to  stand  alone,  140-142. 
Missionary     Children,    providential 
care  of  them,  152. 

Life,  illustrated,  145-168;  funda- 
mental principles,  145;  essen- 
tials, 167. 

Movement,  its  comparative  ex- 
tent, 307. 

Occupation  of  the  heathen  world, 
progress  in,  202-208;  the  cost 
reduced,  208. 

Publications,  how  pastors  can  pro- 
mote their  circulation,  182. 

Societies  and  Missions,  component 
part  of  the  general  ecclesiastical 
body,  17, 159, 184. 

Societies  organized  in  Europe,  22; 
in  the  United  States,  24;  re- 
ceipts of,  22,  27 ;  tabular  views 
of,  336-338,  342-348. 

Spirit  defined,  18;  its  modern  de- 
velopment, 19;  differing  from 
that  of  former  ages,  19 ;  develop- 
ment in  England,  19-20 ;  on  the 
European  continent,  22 ;  in  the 
United  States,  23;  characteris- 
tics, 19,  25. 

Stations,  number  of,  215. 

the,  regarded  as  a  son  and  brother, 
147 ;  a  husband  and  father,  149 ; 
in  his  relations  to  his  Board, 
153;  his  mission,  157;  the  people 
among  whom  he  labors,  160 ;  as 
a  man,  161;  his  support  com- 
pared with  that  of  ministers  at 
home,  165;  his  comparative 
trials,  166;  how  far  he  should 
be  stationary,  104;  should  not 
be  a  pastor,  112. 
Missionaries,  how  many  the  churches 
will  support,  251;  how  many 
are  needed,  252 ;  and  what  sort 
of  men,  255;  from  whence  they 
are  to  come,  258 ;  how  early  de- 


370 


INDEX. 


cide  as  to  their  duty,  261 ;  their 
reflex  influence,  262;  pastors 
becoming  such,  264 ;  how  many 
from  difflerent  seminaries,  259; 
how  far  their  support  is  pledged, 
154;  how  far  a  certainty,  155; 
number  of,  246;  competent  wit- 
nesses as  to  missions,  313. 
English,  ordered  to  leave  India,  9. 
first  American,  offer  of  service,  25 ; 

ordered  to  leave  India,  9. 
and  Pastors,  alike  called  of  God, 
146. 

Missions,  apostolic,  what  they  em- 
braced, 61. 

Missions,  modem,  rise  of  in  England, 
19,  22;  Danish,  19;  Moravian, 
19;  to  American  Indians,  23; 
historical  development  of,  91- 
118;  object  of,  92;  diverse 
modes  of  operating,  92;  not  a 
hopeless  work,  92 ;  analogy  with 
apostoKc  missions,  94;  a  work 
of  faith,  95, 154 ;  principles  and 
methods  of,  109-119;  wherein 
they  differ  from  apostolic  mis- 
sions, 115;  home  and  foreign 
mutually  dependent,  189;  self- 
governing,  157;  essential  prin- 
ciple, 158 ;  what  has  been  learned 
as  to  the  working  of,  158 ;  ob- 
jections to,  185;  their  cost,  187; 
in  the  experimental  stage,  215, 
219;  difi'usion  of,  194-218,245; 
success  of,  219-247, 331 ;  strength 
of,  246 ;  their  illuminating  pow- 
er, 60 ;  tabular  views  of,  333-348. 
oflficial  visits  to.  See  Preface. 
Romish.  See  Romish. 
Theory  of,  not  a  self-evident  mat- 
ter.    See  Preface. 

MofFatt,  Rev.  Mr.,  mention  of,  201. 

Mohammedan   Law,    death-penalty 
abolished,  6. 

Mohammedans,  only  partially  acces- 
sible, 217 


Monasteries,  Irish,  described,  74. 

Monthly  Concert  of  Praj'er,  what  it 
should  be,  178;  how  to  be  re- 
garded, 179;  what  is  essential 
to  an  interest  in  it,  179;  best 
time  for  its  observance,  180; 
best  manner  of  observing  it,  180. 

Moravians,  missionary  pioneers,  19. 

Mullens,  Rev.  Dr.,  quoted,  235,  236, 
237,  278,  317,  331,  344,  345. 

Napoleon,  referred  to,  307. 

Native  Helpers,  number  of,  215. 
Ministry,  value  of,  131-140;  num- 
ber in  the,  215. 
Pastors,  number  of,  215. 

Nestorians,  how  they  became  known, 
201. 

Newspapers,  secular,  remarkable 
change  in,  197,  316. 

Northampton,  singular  occurrence 
at,  20. 

Objections  and  Misapprehensions, 
185-190. 

"  Old  Indians,"  their  opposition  to 
missions,  11. 

Oregon,  how  saved  to  the  United 
States,  200. 

Oriental  Churches,  their  need  of  mis- 
sions, 243 ;  success  among,  244. 

Owen,  Rev.  Dr.,  singular  fact  con- 
perning,  147. 

Pacific  Islands,  success  on  the,  224. 
Papacy,  the,  an  enemy,  299 ;  fitted  to 

arouse  the  Evangelical  Church, 

299;  result  of  conflict  with,  300. 
Parker,  Rev.  Samuel,  penetrates  the 

Rocky  Mountains,  200. 
Parsons,  Levi,  mention  of,  203. 
Pastoral  Duty,  new  conceptions  of, 

173. 
Ofiice,  its  primitive  and  present 

relations,  266. 


INDEX. 


371 


Pastorate,  how  differing  from  that  of 
the  apostolic  age,  116. 

Pastors,  how  tliey  may  remove 
the  ignorance  of  their  people, 
174-183,191;  their  relations  to 
benevolent  societies,  184;  en- 
couragements, 193. 
Native,  backwardness  to  ordain 
such,  102;  their  value,  103; 
their  necessity  to  the  native 
church  a  recent  discovery.  111; 
their  salaries,  112;  able  to  with- 
stand Romish  missionaries,  295. 

Patrick,  his  birth,  69;  never  con- 
nected with  Rome,  69,  70 ;  cap- 
tivity and  conversion,  69;  call 
to  Ireland,  70;  labors  and  suc- 
cess, 71-73;  death,  74;  succes- 
sors, 74. 

Paul,  the  Apostle,  his  idea  of  the 
Christian  Church,  32;  unre- 
corded years,  36;  interview 
with  Peter  and  James,  37; 
labors  in  Cilicia  and  Syria,  37; 
mission  to  Cj'prus  and  Asia 
Minor,  38;  labors  at  Antioch, 
38 ;  second  tour,  41 ;  how  far  he 
performed  the  foreign  mission- 
ary work  of  his  age,  42 ;  rela- 
tion to  the  Lord  Jesus,  45 ;  re- 
sponsibilities under  Christ's 
commission,  45 ;  the  instrumen- 
tality he  employed,  46;  use  of 
local  churches,  47,101;  letters, 
48;  how  regarded  by  his  con- 
temporaries, 49 ;  how  supported, 
50;  classes  gathered  into  his 
churches,  54;  character  of  the 
churches,  57;  hi^  success,  59; 
his  career,  41 ;   martyrdom,  41. 

Peloponnesus,  exploration  of,  200. 

Persecution,  endurance  of  in  Mada- 
gascar, 125,  127,  141;  in  India, 
127, 141 ;  cannot  arrest  missions, 
246. 


Philanthropists,  mere,  not  good  mis- 
sionaries, 167. 

Philippine  Islands,  Romish  mission 
in,  280. 

Philosophers,  reference  to,  167. 

Plassey,  battle  of,  referred  to,  4. 

Poor,  Daniel,  mention  of,  257. 

Portuguese,  struggle  with  for  India,  4. 

Problems,  great,  for  providential  so- 
lution, 2. 

Preachers,  native,  number  of,  246. 

Preaching,  as  a  means  of  grace,  285, 
293,  324. 

Preaching  and  Education,  their  rela- 
tive importance,  231. 

Pre-millenarianism,  adverted  to,  186. 

Presbyterian  Church,  reference  to, 
171. 

Presbyteries,  not  mentioned  in  the 
New  Testament,  56, 110. 

Printing-press,  necessity  of,  115. 

Protection  of  Missionaries,  195. 

Protestantism,  doctrinal  strength  of, 
289. 
and  Popery,  struggle  of  for  India,  4. 

Protestant  Missions,  their  converting 
power  as  compared  with  Romish 
missions,  282-290  ;  how  to  be 
worked  in  the  presence  of  Rom- 
ish missions,  292  ;  grand  pe- 
culiarities of,  295. 

Protestants  in  Turkey,  recognition 
of,  6. 

Providence,  lesson  taught  by,  27. 

Providential  Inflow  of  missionary'  in- 
formation upon  the  churches, 
173. 

Providential  Results,  great,  usually 
exceed  our  calculations,  93. 

QuALA,  a  remarkable  Karen  preach- 
er, account  of,  131-135. 

Railway  System  in  India,  its  im- 
portance, 205. 


372 


INDEX. 


RedclifFe,  Lord  Stratford  de,  mention 
of,  6. 

"Reformed  Catholic  Mission,"  re- 
ferred to,  291. 

Religious  Centres  occupied,  200. 
Toleration,  opposition  to,  9  ;  how 

secured  for  India,  12. 
Results,  246. 

Rdsume,  301. 

Revivals  of  Religion,  in  foreign  mis- 
sions, 142. 

Ripa,  Father,  quoted,  276. 

Ritualists,  troublesome  members  in 
the  apostolic  churches,  35,  39. 

Robinson,  Dr.  Edward,  mention  of, 
257. 

Rocky  Mountains,  wagon  road 
through,  discovered  by  a  mis- 
sionary, 200. 

Roman  Catholic  World,  how  far  ac- 
cessible, 217. 

Roman  Hierarchy,  what  it  is  doing, 
192. 

Rome,  publishes  little  concerning  her 
missions,  273. 

Romish  Missions,  as  an  opposing 
power,  269-300;  their  present 
leading  object,  269 ;  their  former 
extent,  270-274  ;  had  none  to 
oppose  them,  274 ;  great  reported 
successes,  275 ;  were  all  a  failure, 
278,  361;  principles  underlying 
them  and  Protestant  missions, 
283;  their  inefficiency  as  a  con- 
verting agency,  282;  yet  a  for- 
midable antagonist,  290  ;  how 
to  labor  in  their  presence,  292; 
grounds  of  hope,  297 ;  an  incite- 
ment to  Protestants,  247;  sum- 
mary of,  349;  materials  for  the 
history  of,  351. 

Russia,   protector  of    Greek   Chris- 
tians, 5. 
and  France,  designs  of  on  Tur 
key,  4. 


Sabbath-schools,  defect  in  their 
instruction,  175;  in  their  text- 
books, 175;  in  their  libraries, 
176 ;  missionary  societies  in,  177. 

Sanborn,  Rev.  Mr.,  mention  of,  25. 

Sandwich  Islands,  singular  experi- 
ence, 105 ;  success  in,  224. 

Santhals,  success  among,  233. 

Saviour's  Command,  extent  of  it, 
and  progress  made  in  obeying 
it,  195. 

Schools,  Jesuit,  why  not  imitated  by 
Protestant  missions,  292. 

Scotia  and  Scots,  true  meaning  of, 
65,  66. 

Scottish  Missionary  Societies,  21. 

Self-righteousness,  its  ability  to 
labor  and  suffer,  282. 

Shanars,  success  among,  233. 

Sierra  Leone,  remarkable  success, 
121-124;  its  present  condition, 
124. 

Skepticism,  its  paralyzing  influence, 
190. 

Slaves,  emancipated,  leferred  to,  14. 

Smith,  Dr.  Eli,  explorations  of  200; 
mention  of,  257. 

South  America,  exploration  of,  199. 

South  Pacific  Islands,  success  in, 
226. 

Spiritual  Illumination,  reserve  in, 
36,  41. 

Supernatural,  the,  in  the  apostolic 
age,  41. 

Tahiti,  mention  of,  103,  140. 
Thibet,  but  partially  known,  217. 
Thomas,  Rev.  John,  account  of  an 

eloquent  native  preacher,  135. 
Timothy,  charge    to,    meaning    of, 

101. 
Toleration,  religious,  how  secured  in 

India,  8-14. 
Tucker,  Rev.  Mr.,  his  success  among 

the  Shanars,  234. 


INDEX. 


373 


Turkey,  how  opened  to  the  gospel, 
4-6;  exploration  of,  200,  201. 
Eastern,  value  of  native  churches 
in,  128. 

Unevangelized  World,  opening  to 
the  gospel,  1-15. 

Venn,  Rev.  Henry,  his "  Life  of 
Xavier"  quoted.  111,  296,  351- 
363. 

Vinton,  Rev.  Mr.,  his  labors  and 
success,  231. 

Wak,  spiritual,  begun  as  never  be- 
fore, for  the  conquest  of  the 
world,  308. 

Ward,  Rev.  Dr.,  mention  of,  8. 

W.ishington  Territory,  how  saved  to 
the  United  State's,  200. 

Widows  of  Missionaries,  how  cared 
lor,  15G. 

Williams,  Dr.  S.  Wells,  quoted,  277. 


Wilson,  Dr.  J.  L.,  quoted,  275. 

Winfred.    See  Boniface. 

Winslow,  Miron,  mention  of,  257. 

World,  unevangelized,  opening  to  the 
gospel,  1-15 ;  duty  thence  aris- 
ing, 27;  missionary  survey  of, 
202;  how  far  occupied,  218;  how 
to  be  subdued,  294. 

Worship,  forms  of,  value  of  simpli- 
city in,  293. 

Xavier,  Francis,  disheartened  in 
India,  278 ;  use  made  of  the  civil 
power,  284, 354 ;  belief  in  baptis- 
mal regeneration,  288;  defective 
views  of  the  gospel,  296;  his 
converts,  353 ;  his  ideas  of  ex- 
piation, 354;  as  a  Christian  mis- 
sionary, 356 ;  his  estimate  of  his 
success  in  India,  359;  as  com- 
pared with  Protestant  mission- 
aries, 359. 


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